Who on the PWO roster is a Golden Flash like Kevin?

The next match was the Gambinos with agent Aaron Maguire against Hobo Joe & Jason Bane. I  had some problems seeing this match since the combatants rarely fought in the same place so I just followed what I could. The crowd standing up for the big spots certainly didn’t help me. As predicted, Maguire got drug into the match and got his come uppance. He also got tossed in the dumpster with the Gambinos so that Bane & Joe could dumpster dive their way to victory.

There was an intermission at this point when the band Culture Icon played. They’re no Hold For Swank, I know that much. Their lead singer also looked much better in the program guide than in person. She was billed as a powerful female vocalist but my list of 5 that I’ve seen live that are better than her goes something like this: Any of the back up vocalists for KMFDM, Maria Sjoholm (Drain STH), Aimee Echo (Human Waste Project, The Start), Donita Sparks (L7) and the best Tairee B (Manhole, Tura Satana, My Ruin).

After that 3 or 4 song performance, Hailey Hatred took on Portia Perez. It must be noted that Perez has one of the most fantastics asses I have ever seen. Not that Hatred is pretty good looking herself. Hatred hit a cool looking fall away slam bridge pin that was awesome. She followed it up with a fisher man’s buster for the win. Hatred then got some shots in on Eric Ryan who had been bitching about her (way too limited) air time. Still batting 1.000 on the predicitions.

They had a little ceremony before the next match that debuted the TV Title which was a nice thing to do. The match was a four way between Virus, Super Hentai, Benjamin Boone and Eric Draven. Boone was the crowd favorite which was strange since he “moved” to Michigan and is clearly a heel. Draven went for an early suicide dive but unfortunately clipped his heel on the top rope and took a rough spill on the outside and took an Edge coffee break. Nothing else too eventful happened. Draven did recover, came out was sent on an Irish whip by Virus but he springboarded off the second rope for a tornado DDT and win. Damn you Draven, you just screwed up my batting average!

Bob Golic was the guest ring announcer for the match between Mike Tolar and “M-Dogg 20” Matt Cross. Golic made fun someone wearing a Steelers jersey (I also saw a “Fuck Pittsburgh” shirt in the crowd too. Nothing makes me laugh more as a Steelers fan. The Ravens are the Steelers rival. The Steelers haven’t lost to the Browns in 6 1/2 years. Get over it.) and a guy wearing a Michigan shirt (at least you have some room on that one Bob). Cross and Tolar may have had the match of the night. If nothing else, it stayed in the ring which helped my viewing. Tolar won after a distraction by either Ben Fruth or EJ Georgio allowed him to hit a Roll of the Dice.

Since Valentine was hurt, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart had to defend the PWO Tag Team Titles alone against The Clash, Brian Bender & Earnie Ballz. Valentine came out for moral support but someone distracted the referee and the other guy hit “The Anvil” with one of Valentine’s crutches. The hitter left the crutch in the ring and in full view of the referee but that didn’t deter him from counting three so that The Clash are the PWO Tag Team Champions. Worst match of the night. My predicitions are back on track though.

The last match of the night was the PWO Heavyweight Title match pitting Josh Prohibition against Johnny Gargano, who was introduced with live music from Culture Icon. It may have been the best match of the night but because they fought all over Nautica Pavilion my view was obscured or non-existant. It’ll definitely be able to evaluate it when they air it on TV. When they were in the ring, it was a great match up. Gargano won with his finisher, Uniquely You, a second time onto a sturdier table than normal. After Prohibition got struggled back to his feet, he announced that he was retiring from wrestling and thanked all of the fans. That was a classy act especially since a large contingent of the fans were rooting for him.

I didn’t stick around too long for the Meet and Greet because I wanted to get back here to Columbus. I completely ignored Valentine, Neidhart, Snow and Oscar from Men on a Mission. I got my picture taken with Hailey Hatred outside the bar that the Meet and Greet was held but I still can’t figure out why my memory card isn’t allowing my computers access to the files. I did get the chance to talk to Josh Prohibition, confirmed that he is indeed retiring and I’ll let him explain why because I set up an interivew with him since I had done one with him previously at the PW Torch. I got to meet Aaron Maguire in person which was fun. His interaction with fans seeking autographs was hilarious. He told two little girls to fork over money and said after they left that he almost never signs because people will remember an interesting interaction than a random signature from an Indy wrestler which I think is probably true. After that, I took some time to talk to Benjamin Boone and another fellower Golden Flash, Mike Tolar. We yapped some about the dorms that we lived in that have been taken down and replaced. We also chatted about my days as an architecture student and how he used to go stumbling past Taylor Hall hammered and pitying us. We weren’t there at the same time as he came to campus the fall after I graduated. I set up an interview with him for the future too. I got to talk a little bit to some of the other guys (Michael Cash, Johnny Gargano and Matt Cross) but nothing too substantial before I hit the road.

I had a great time up there and the event came off well even if the weather could have been a little cooler and I didn’t have an exhausting trip back to Columbus. -Kevin