DEJ Experience District DEJ's Kevin: Covering Pro Wrestling Ohio - Breaking Down the Storylines May 11, 2008 - 11:09:09 AM

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By Kevin DiFrango, DEJ Experience Member

P.W.O.: Aired 20th April 2008

I did miss a week of P.W.O. action because of a glitch in my DVR but most of the main storylines that I have reported on were skipped on the previous program. The organization is looking to further the main storylines between their main players. "Bloody" Morty Rackem continues his quest to reclaim his heirloom swords. Cronus along with his agent Aaron Maguire rampage through the P.W.O. while awaiting an official match with the unstoppable babyface Jason Bane. Josh Prohibition shows off his in ring skills while his tag team partner Johnny Gargano looks to inflict more pain on his long time enemy Gregory Iron. These events and more are in this episode of Pro Wrestling Ohio.

The show started with an introduction panning around the crowd and the regular announcer Joe Domrowski with new partner Michael Cash announced the matches for the evening. Cash had been previously used as the backstage reporter. It was a fairly standard opening that you could have seen on Raw, but the audio quality was a little off the whole night. It was either echoing or too quiet. They threw the coverage to the backstage area.

“Bloody” Morty Rackem auditioned a bunch of jobbers -- even the independent leagues need them -- who were there to become his partner and aid him in his quest for his heirloom pirate swords. Matthew Justice then walked up to him and offered his services while insulting his current tag team partner Charles “White Sox” Johnson for being crazy. After Rackem accepted Justice’s offer, Matthew turned around to see Johnson, who'd “heard enough” of his insults. “White Sox” gave Justice his good-luck white socks because he’d need it against the Viruses. Nothing brings the funny like telling someone with a pirate gimmick that someone else is crazy. “Bloody” Morty is a decent talker, but Justice still needs some work.

They immediately go to the match between Rackem & Justice versus Virus & Virus Grande. All participants are in the ring. The announcers finally note that Virus Grande is the masked man wearing orange with black trim, while Virus wore black with orange trim. The website wasn’t any help in differentiating them. During the match, Rackem and Justice executed a “rowboat” maneuver in which they braced themselves against Virus’ body while “rowing” his arms and legs. That maneuver has to be the worst I have seen in wrestling. Justice pinned Virus with a crucifix. During Rackem and Justice's celebration, the Viruses attacked them from behind and took the swords again. Justice had been thrown out of the ring so he brought a ladder into the ring to clear the ring. Morty then got on the microphone and challenged the Viruses to a ladder match next month for final possession of the swords.

The match was a standard tag team match with the faces getting in offense early, Justice taking a beating during the next phase which allowed him to get the hot tag to Rackem. Neither Cash nor Dombrowski played the bad cop role. The announcers did a good job of selling the differences between a seasoned tag team like the Viruses and a new team like Justice and Rackem. Cash and Dombrowski questioned Morty tagging Justice back into the match after sustaining the beating, which was a great point to bring up.

Lionel “The Amazing Canadian” Knight cut a promo after the back. He repeated himself several times and even stumbled over the line he used in which he described himself as the best in Canada. He also mentioned that he’s “just making a pit stop” in the PWO for the competition. Lionel needs more time practicing his promos because this one was terrible.

Cronus and Aaron Maguire came to the ring to face Chuck “White Sox” Johnson for the next match. The announcers kept up the killer heel hype for Cronus and his impending match against the unstoppable babyface, Jason Bane. Maguire does a good job of the over-the-top heel manager yelling about how great his client is and getting to the face of any fans jeering them. The match was a squash and Cronus again used the F5 as his finisher. I’m guessing that Johnson giving away his lucky socks had nothing to do with the loss. Cronus has some real potential; having a manager may mean that his mic skills aren’t great, but I think that can be worked on to make anyone better.

The coverage skips over ring introductions and goes right to the next match, which is Josh Prohibition vs. Hiromi Horiguchi. Cash and Dombrowski mention that Horiguchi was trained by Ultimo Dragon. They point out Prohibition’s many enemies but that he has great technical skill in the ring. Cash and Dombrowski go on to talk about the rising competition level in Pro Wrestling Ohio. Prohibition wins with a Drunken Driver, which is an underhook suplex, sitdown driver.

This match was easily the best I have seen and would probably get two and a half to three stars, but easily could have been higher if they had been given more than eight minutes to work. Prohibition is great at being a heel, from the cocky attitude and yapping at the crowd to the standard heel backing down tactics shown in prior weeks.

After a commercial break, Gregory Iron is introduced by the ring announcer but is stopped by Cash on the entrance ramp for an interview. He cuts a promo against Johnny Gargano and tells him that he’s ready to fight whenever Gargano is. The ring announcer then brings call “Deelicious” Jimmy DeMarco to the ring and the match starts. Cash and Dombrowski remind us how strange DeMarco is and how he likes to hurt people no matter the consequences. The match started to go in Iron's favor after a couple of minutes of action when Gargano came in from the crowd and slipped into the ring with a chair. Gargano attacked Iron with the chair, tosses him to the outside and then swung him by his legs against the guardrail several times. Iron was then rolled back into the ring where Gargano wanted to continue the beatdown but was finally stopped by security and “The Deviant” Michael Hunter, who recently befriended Iron. Prohibition hit the ringside area to give backup to his partner in crime, Gargano. The medical staff was smart enough not to roll Iron and waits to slide him onto a stretcher and take him out of the arena.

The assault was great to get across Gargano’s anger at losing to Iron several weeks ago and to continue this feud. The camera time that was given to the medical staff taking Iron out of the ring was too much and could have been used to lengthen the match between Prohibition and Horiguchi since they need to highlight their in ring work as much as possible.

Pro Wrestling Ohio did a good job of advancing all of their main storylines. The “Bloody” Morty Rackem saga with the Viruses is coming to a head with the proposed ladder match next month. The Cronus and Bane storyline is also coming along nicely with a show down between the two monsters of the promotion to be coming sometime in the near future. There’s not much more I can say about Gargano’s beat down on Iron but it’s another story that is moving right along and should make for some interesting repercussions for Gargano in the following weeks. Prohibition’s match with Horiguchi was the highlight of the show from an in-ring standpoint. I’m hoping that Horiguchi is going to stick around for a while, because he could certainly help the other wrestlers hone their skills. After a standout week by Josh Prohibition, I'll be taking a break from coverage of the show to bring you an interview with him.

Kevin DiFrango is the creator of a weekly cartoon that appears only on the VIP message board. Keep an eye out for Dusty, Eric or Jeremy's articles and our Ask the Experience blog. If you feel like you have some ideas to stir into our pot, email us at theaudioexperience@gmail.com

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