I had to worry about the mosh pit the last time I was at Nautica Pavilion.

I’m mostly going to type about the experience of Wrestlelution 2 although I will include some match observations.  I’ll do a full match later when they air these on TV in September. You heard that right Grandkids, you get a respite from this column for a month. You may have to listen to some interviews though because I got a couple of them lined up after the show at the meet and greet. I will have some pictures to post later but the memory card I bought for my phone is not reading from my home or office computer.

My drive to Cleveland was pretty bland as it usually is but it went by quickly and I enjoyed the good part of the Pirates game. Not until I got back did I realized they blew a lead for the fifth time in eight games after leading after 7. Ugh. I’d been to a number of concerts at Nautica during my days at Kent State so it brought back some memories. The crowd was definitely lacking from those concerts though but that’s to be expected since I saw the likes of Pantera and Slayer. There was something in the 1500-2000 range. I had VIP seating which placed me on the stage which was above the ring, but 4 rows of people lined the base of the stage before the guardrail around the ring.

The first thing I noticed on my way to the stage was Greg “The Hammer” Valentine at a table taking money for autographs. Thanks, but no thanks. He had a leg brace on though so I wondered if their match was going to be cut out of the event. I’ll sum up the looks of most of the crowd by noting that a gentleman in front of me had suspenders that stretched, but needed a carbeener to get all the way to the belt loop and even then, I unfortunately saw some plumber’s crack.

The event started on time and with the Sex Appeal (Bobby Beverly, Bobby Shields and someone who wasn’t Caleb Connelly but was good with taunting the crowd) against Fontaine’s Freaks (Marion Fontaine, Noj the Wild Samoan and thankfully Kid Cupid was replaced by Gregory Iron). The crowd was more lively for this event than any other wrestling event that I’ve been to in Cleveland so that was nice. The match seemed fine and ended with Noj being triple super kicked by Sex Appeal so that they got the three count. My ordering was off, but I called the winner.

Irish Airborne, Dave & Jake Crist, took on Eric Ryan & Corey Winters. You could really tell the experience difference in this match. I hope Ryan & Winters took something away from this match because it’ll improve the PWO as a whole.  Irish Airborne wins with a DVD onto Dave’s knees as he is on his back. It was an interesting move. My ordering is still piss poor but I’m 2 for 2 on winners.

“Bloody” Morty Rackem took on Matthew Justice. I was surprised by Justice’s size and impressed that he’s been hitting the gym quite a bit to build his physique. It was a “Pirate’s Rules” match where the rules were relaxed. Because Rackem’s belt figured prominently into their story from this year, it figured into the match too. Justice ended up winning by choking out Rackem with it. I wasn’t too cool with the finish because Justice had been doing things the “right way” so I think he should have hit his finisher to get the three count. Three for three on my predictions.

The next match up was Al Snow against “Amazing” N8 Mattson. Mattson had a little promo before the match running down Ohio. The match seemed to take forever to start because Snow kept chasing Mattson around the ring with Head. Snow still looks in good shape. Mattson tried to pull an Eddie Guerrero by faking a chair shot, laying down and giving the chair to Snow but he did the same so that when the referee turned around from retying the turnbuckle pad, he was confused. The referee turned around to toss the chair out when Al Snow hit Mattson with Head to get the win. The match quality wasn’t quite as good as I hoped. I’m batting 1.000 with my predicitions though.

Back with more tomorrow. Just what you wanted, I know. -Kevin