Premiere Wrestling Xperience Results
“Queen City Rising” iPPV
March 14, 2014
Charlotte, N.C. at Club Hush
In-Person Report by Dave Harlequin, PWTorch correspondent

PWX returned to Charlotte for their "Queen City Rising" iPPV event (via Highspots.com) on a show that featured several ROH stars including Cedric Alexander, Caprice Coleman, and Adam Page. This was the first PWX event I've been able to attend in some time, although I am an avid viewer of their one-hour weekly show on CW Network (which has really stepped up their production level of late, by the way) thanks to the magic of DVR.

Pretty good crowd despite a rather sketchy venue with a bit of a bad reputation. My friends and I were just getting in as the opening dark match was taking place, but I knew what was going on as it followed the PWX TV storyline of Chase Brown challenging the "manliest man in the back" and instead getting Su Yung coming out beating, and embarrassing him. Simple, classic girl-beats-up-guy stuff. Got a couple beers and made our way to some truly fantastic seats, one row from ringside, and right beside the entrance ramp.

Dark Match: Su Yung beat Chase Brown via pinfall.

(1) Billy Brash beat Anthony Henry & Jackson James via pinfall in a triple threat match. Very good, brutal opening match that really got the crowd into it. Both James and Henry looked especially good and worked exceptionally stiff, much to crowd's delight. So stiff, in fact, that Henry had a nasty cut under his eye after getting caught with a very hard shot from James and a few ventures out into the audience/ringside chairs. Brash seemed the odd man out here, and just didn't feel in-sync with the chemistry of the other two, or perhaps he was just that out-shined here. Excellent opening match, complete with all the blood and brutality the hardcore audience loves.

(2) Lodi beat Oliver Grimsley via pinfall. Fine match, but just never seemed to get out of first gear. "Lodi sucks" and various other anti-Lodi chants went pretty much the entire length of the match, despite Lodi being booked as the face. Worth mentioning is how great of shape Lodi is in and how good he looks for his age. Even still, the Charlotte crowd was just having none of him for whatever reason. Basic stuff here, Lodi wins with the Evenflow DDT.

Adam Page came out next to cut a promo about his Country Jacked tag-team partner Corey Hollis not being here tonight, blaming PWX management for "not sending a limo or even calling a cab to pick him up after his truck broke down." Page said he would wrestle the next match solo.

(3) Adam Page beat PWX Tag Team champions Los Ben DeJos (Cruz & Rios) and The Sin City Saints via pinfall in a triple threat tag team match. Both Los Ben Dejos and Adam Page were really over with the crowd, particularly with PWX Tag champions Los Ben Dejos continuously hitting great highspots throughout the match and keeping the pace up. The Sin City Saints seemed rather sloppy and out of place in this match, and were not over with the crowd at all, who ridiculed their attire with chants the entire match. Los Ben Dejos hit a beautiful in-stereo senton bomb and 450 splash combination for the finish, but just as they were about to get the pin, Page threw them out of the ring and stole the victory, earning Country Jacked a future Tag Team championship match.

[ Intermission. The ring announcer called for intermission but first introduced former TNA Knockout Sojourner "SoJo" Bolt, who came out to announce another independent women's wrestling show. Not very many people seemed to know who she was and/or just didn't seem to care. Very tepid, quiet reaction to head into intermission.

Shortly after Bolt left the ring, the ring announcer introduced "official PWX ring girl, future-PWX women's wrestler, and daughter of Tully Blanchard" Tessa Blanchard to a warmer reaction and she walked around ringside greeting fans. ]

Back from intermission, Worst Case Scenario and manager The Tommy Thomas cut a great promo about how after losing the PWX Tag Team championship they are "done with Pro Wrestling" and are instead only going to "engage in Sport Entertainment" ever again, going as far as to offer a condescending how-to-guide on downloading the PWX app, dubbing themselves and their supporters the "International Sports Entertainment Society or ISES." This drew massive heat, as one would expect in a wrestling hotbed like Charlotte, and will undoubtedly carry them a long way as a top heel team in a promotion based in the old Mid-Atlantic region of the Carolinas. They introduced their surprise partner for the upcoming six-man-tag match - Mia Yim, who reluctantly came out to join them, but refused to throw streamers with or buddy up to WCS. Zane Riley and Lance Lude then came out and brought out their partner - ROH's Caprice Coleman.

(4) Caprice Coleman & Lance Lude & Zane Riley beat Worst Case Scenario (Ethan Case & Elijah Evans IV w/The Tommy Thomas) & Mia Yim via pinfall in a six-person-tag-match. Worst Case Scenario wouldn't allow Mia Yim to tag in stating that "in Sports Entertainment, women are not allowed to face men" which drew major heat from the fans. Yim tagged herself in anyway a few times throughout the match, which had plenty of back and forth action and great spots throughout, including a very cool triple northern lights suplex from Coleman. The fans were really into the action, with several "this is awesome" chants all through the match. The finish came when Tommy Thomas slapped the rump of Mia Yim, which led to her tossing him into the ring and attacking him allowing Lance Lude to hit the Skywalker for the win. Afterwards Mia Yim celebrated in the ring with Lude, Riley, and Coleman.

(5) PWX iTV champion "Mr. Elite" Drew Myers and "Man Scout" Jake Manning went to a 10-minute time limit draw for the iTV Title. Pretty basic stuff here. Not a bad match, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it, just not really much to say about it. Manning got some strong cheers, and Myers got some heat. Time limit draw happened, and (per PWX rules) Manning cashed in his "time-limit-draw re-match clause" (as is the stipulation of the iTV title) immediately, but Myers ran away. Manning cut a promo, got some cheers, and exited.

(6) Cedric Alexander beat "King of Swerve" Shane Strickland via pinfall. Absolutely incredible match, as has become commonplace for Cedric Alexander over the past year or so. This guy has all the tools, and really should be a big star on a national stage in the future, but if he never goes anywhere beyond PWX and ROH, I don't think the fans would mind as he's clearly the most over individual on the roster. The crowd went completely berserk for this one, chanting throughout for both wrestlers, as well as the match itself. Strickland was excellent as his opponent, and the two worked really well together. Very fun, fast-paced, and hard-hitting match that kept the crowd very entertained and was on-par with previous outstanding matches he's had of late with the likes of Jay Lethal, Chris Hero, and A.J. Styles. Alexander hit the Concussion-On-Delivery turnbuckle dropkick (which is an absolutely sick move to see live, by the way) followed by a brainbuster for the pin and the win.

After the match, the two shook hands, and the crowd continued to chant "that was awesome" for what was easily the match of the night.

(7) PWX champion "The Midnight Son" Caleb Konley beat Chip Day via pinfall to retain the PWX Title. Another good match, but just not quite on-par with the Alexander-Swann match before it. This may simply be because a lot of the crowd energy was spent by this point, as it wasn't a bad match at all. Chip Day made his return to PWX after an absence to claim his PWX championship match with Caleb Konley, who seems much better suited for, and much more comfortable in his new heel role and that really showed in this match. Great action throughout which got the crowd back into it. Konley's girlfriend/valet Amanda Rodriguez ran in to prevent Konley from doing his now-signature title belt shot on Day, but Konley shoved Rodriguez by the head out of the ring which drew massive heat, and caused the distraction on Day for Konley to hit the CK1 Driver for the pin and the win.

Apparently the finish was all a ruse (as I'm sure commentary explained, though I of course couldn't hear it) as Amanda Rodriguez came back into the ring and kissed/celebrated with Konley to close the show.

Overall, this was a very good, very fun wrestling show from PWX who continue to impress me as well as a lot of wrestling fans I know in the Carolinas. Very hot crowd of what I'd estimate was around 300 or so, and well worth the $10 admission.

My only real complaint was that Club Hush is kind of a dump in a very run-down part of town with an exceptionally understocked bar (which says a lot for a nightclub on a Friday night) and shattered glass literally all over their parking lot. The venue has a pretty bad reputation for shootings, crime, and the typical problems that come with "urban nightlife" clubs as-is, so that undoubtedly hurt their draw. That said, nothing bad happened despite the poor choice of venue, everyone seemed to have a good time, and I will definitely be attending the next event, as well as looking for myself on the local CW networks.

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