ACW Running With The Devil
Date: 12/15/2023
From: Oak Hill, WV
MATCH #1: COREY SPARKS VS. THUNDERFOOT
FINISH: Sparks superkicks Thunderfoot to win the match.
Bob’s Take: I can already tell I’m going to love the West Virginia audience as they chanted ‘chicken foot’ at Thunderfoot. Thunderfoot is the typical mid-90’s Southern heel gimmick. One thing I noticed is that every time the camera switches the cuts are a fade to scene instead of a clean switch. That’s a bit annoying from a production standpoint. As far as in-ring action, there was nothing going on here. Sparks hit a couple of dropkicks and actually do a sling blade, but for the most part there was nothing going on here. The lack of high impact offense didn’t seem to bother the crowd. As long as the good guy wins they pop for it.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #2: THE FRANCHISE PLAYERS (BETTY D, NICK HAMRICK & SHANE STORM) VS. BRUCE GREY, NURSE MIKA & SAM HOLLOWAY
FINISH: Holloway chokeslams Hamrick and Storm before pinning Hamrick for the win. Grey was dancing with Betty causing the finish.
Bob’s Take: Judging by entrances, Hamrick is the most hated of the group. Shane Storm is a more flamboyant character who has a lollipop in his mouth. Nurse Mika was enjoyable in her offense against Storm hitting a head scissors at one point. ACW is not against male vs. woman violence. Apparently, Mika as an ass of steel as Hamrick and Storm tried an atomic drop on her at one point and they sold their knees. Bruce was noticeably not using his right arm in any capacity, as he appears to have a brace on his shoulder. Holloway is a young, tall worker who was limited in the match, but I can see the appeal of making him a top face in ACW at some point. Similar to the opener, there wasn’t much going on here, at all.
Match Rating: *
MATCH #3: COWPOKE PAUL VS. WES BARKLEY
FINISH: Paul plants Barkley with a tornado DDT out of the corner to win the match.
Bob’s Take: Just from the entrance alone, I can tell that Paul has the most charisma I’ve seen on the show to this point. I’m aware of Barkley, but I’ve never seen his work before. For the most part, this is a comedy match with Paul hog tying Barkley at one point and spanking him. While Paul has a bunch of charisma, he misses his offense by quite a large distance and it actually made me chuckle how far off he was from making any even remotely close contact. I can’t imagine the crowd reaction to this outside of anywhere other than West Virginia.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #4: ACW SUPER H CHAMPION MARINO TENAGLIA VS. AC8 VS. GORGEOUS GREGORY VS. JASON HENDRIX VS. JASON KINCAID VS. MATTHEW JAEGER
FINISH: Marino leaps off the top to hit a flying knee strike on Jaeger.
Bob’s Take: Before the match even starts, Gregory praises himself and his looks prompting the other competitors to taunt him and mess with his jacket, which emotionally ruins Gregory. The match is a lot more fast paced than the matches before it, but it also came across as six guys just brawling without the high impact moves you may expect. Marino gets triple teamed for an extended period of time, but the heels can’t agree on who wins the match. Of course, when there’s a stereo dive to the floor the cameraman is way out of position. Kincaid hit a top rope moonsault to the floor, which popped the crowd. At one point, a man in a wheelchair is used as a battering ram and assists on a superkick on the floor. I’m not making that up. This is by far the best match thus far as there was some entertaining aspects to the bout. The wheelchair bit on the floor popped me.
Match Rating: **
MATCH #5: JOSHUA BISHOP VS. RON MATHIS — INTERIM ACW HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP —FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE
NOTE: ACW Heavyweight Champion Bobby Beverly suffered an injury, and instead of stripping him these two are competing for the interim championship.
FINISH: Bishop powerbombs Mathis through a table in the corner to win the match and interim championship.
Bob’s Take: I’ve been a fan of Bishop for a while and him appearing in ACW was a major reason I checked out this show. Bishop gives me Psycho Sid vibes, and I love Sid. Within thirty seconds of the match starting I could tell this was going to be better than everything else prior to it. Mathis seems to be a crazed character. They really liked doing a bit of ramming their opponent head onto a table in front of middle school kids. Mathis cemented his crazed attitude by doing an elbow drop off the apron as if he’s Cactus Jack. Mathis dove off the side of the bleachers onto Bishop as well, and his crazy antics are over with the crowd, and me for that matter. The fact these guys went the route of a hardcore match in front of middle schoolers is hilarious to me, but it was also the right call for entertainment purposes. I don’t recall having ever seen Mathis prior to this, but I enjoyed his performance and his antics being similar to Cactus Jack. The finish was great and the visual of thirty or so middle schoolers losing their mind over it was pretty cool, too. I enjoyed this match a lot more than I expected considering what I watched beforehand.
Match Rating: ***1/2
MAIN EVENT: ACW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE FRANCHISE PLAYERS (CHRIS CANNON & SHANE DOUGLAS) VS. HEATH & RHINO
FINISH: Late in the bout, the referee is splashed in the corner. Rhino GORES Cannon and a school official counts the fall to give Rhino and Heath the titles. However, in a post match segment the match is ruled a no contest. That’s right, the live crowd thinks they saw a title change and they did the dusty backstage. We can’t letdown the middle school kids, after all.
Bob’s Take: I seem to recall a time where Shane Douglas insisted that he’d never wrestle past the time where he couldn’t go anymore and didn’t want to become a Ric Flair. However, Flair is Shane’s idol, so of course he’s going to do exactly that. This turned into a brawl including Cannon brawling with Heath in the school hallways. I’m sure that’s because they were never going to fill the time with a traditional tag match for an extended time. Following the previous match, they were in a tough spot. I understand having these guys main event because of the name value of Rhino, Heath and Douglas, but there was never a chance they’d come close to the Bishop/Mathis bout in terms of entertainment.
Match Rating: *
Final Thoughts:
Credit to the West Virginia crowd for being energetic and responding to mostly everything on the show regardless of quality. The only bout worth checking out is Bishop/Mathis as they had a fun hardcore brawl. Am I going to watch more ACW? Yes. I get enjoyment of watching unknown independents and it’s because of matches between Bishop and Mathis. So, it’s an overall thumbs down show, but check out Bishop vs. Mathis on their YouTube channel.
Thanks for reading.