* Texas Heritage Tag League
The Pine Street Posse and Firebirds were in the ring to start the night off hot, and neither team were there to disappoint! These two fan-favorite teams were both out of contention to win the tournament, but they were no less motivated to win the match and put on a good show. The highlight of the night saw a series of dives from the Firebirds and Suicidal Youth followed up by the three-hundred and twenty-five pound Rod ‘the Bod’ Fantastico show why he calls himself the World’s Largest Luchador when he launched himself off of the top ropes with a flipping tope onto both of his opponents and his partner that took everybody out. Rod rolled Phoenix II and Suicidal Youth into the ring and then the PSP hit the Pine Street Plunge for the win and the five points.
* The Dirty Rydas were at the Interview Station, mean-mugging anyone and everyone. Angus Skaaland came over to ask a few questions, but Gutshot bullied the microphone out of his hands and said what he’d come to say:
Gutshot: “Lemme tell you bustas somethin’! You bitches think jus’ ‘cuz your ride dem ugly ass bikes dat makes ya hard? Spen’ a day in my shoes nucca, bangin’ an’ slangin’ in da hood, livin’ hard wit’ da killer instict! Tell ‘em Shank!
Shank: “Sheeeeeeeeeyit! Like I be sayin, dem bitches don’t know nuttin’ bout dis game son-”
Shank was cut off when the Hell Riders hit the scene and a brawl immediately erupted between the two teams. Skaaland called for the entirety of LARIAT’s referee squadron to try and coral the four men over at least near the ring. It wasn’t easy, though, as the Rydas and Riders managed to fight their way around to the floor seating and up toward the concession stand where they tore the whole thing apart before finally brawling their way down toward the ring.
* Texas Heritage Tag League
It took nearly ten minutes of crowd brawling before both teams made it to the ringside area, and the referee called for the bell as soon as Doomsday tossed Shank Nasty under the ropes and into the ring. All four men were winded at this point but the brawl continued. Apache dropped off the apron and went around and pulled Gutshot down and plastered him with a hard right hand before sending him hard into the guardrail and jumping into the ring where he and Doomsday hit their Go2Hell finisher and Doomsday made the cover for the pinfall victory.
* Backstage Rich Mahogany climbed out of a hot tub wearing only an electric-blue banana-hammock and leaving behind three of The Ladies to pine for his quick return from wrestling. The Love Machine pulled on his only slightly more concealing wrestling trunks, slicked his hair back into a ponytail, and grabbed the Lonestar Television Title off of a nearby table and headed for the ring.
* Lonestar Television Title Match
Wyatt Bronson was out first with his bullrope in tow. He took off his ten-gallon hat and leather vest and ran wild in the ring, slapping the ropes and the mat and almost the referee, demanding that Rich Mahogany get out to the ring and fight like a man. Otis Redding’s “Love Man” played the Champion out, and as usual he made a big deal out of pandering to The Ladies, but Wyatt was having none of it this time. He left the ring and barrel-assed up the aisle and wrapped his bullrope around Mahogany’s neck and drug him to the ring, slung him under the bottom rope, and followed him in.
The referee was quick to unwrap the rope from around the choking Champion’s neck, and since all of this happened before the bell rang he had no choice but to start the match as Wyatt began stomping the mess out of Rich. The champ flopped around on the mat, screaming like a six year old girl, and trying to get away from Bronson to the best of his ability. Bronson put a stop to the floundering, though, with a very well placed elbow drop to the gut of the Champ that knocked all of the breath out of him.
Bronson continued kicking the crap out of Rich for quite a few minutes, with the champion never getting in any offense except for the occasional eye-rake or toe-stomp that only infuriated Wyatt that much more. Bronson set Rich up for a powerbomb, looking to flatten the champion and end the match, but The Love Machine had one last trick up his sleeve as in plain sight of the referee Rich gave Bronson the low blow to end all low blows. The official had no choice but to call a disqualification, and Rich rolled out of the ring, grabbed his title belt, and high-tailed it away from the enraged Texan screaming at him from the ring.
* Dusty Griffith paced the floor of his locker room. His tournament final with Frank Dylan James for the Pride of Texas Heavyweight Title was coming up in a few short minutes and he seemed to be mentally preparing himself for what he knew would be a war. He said nothing, never even acknowledged the camera, he just paced. The look of determination etched across his face was a familiar sight, though, and you could tell that he was running his game plan one last time before the big match.
* Texas Heritage Tag League
Kazuo Akamatsu led the Osaka Hate Crime to the ring, and from the looks of things Akamatsu had his men ready. They kept the hijinks to a minimum for once, knowing that with only a four point lead on the Points Table that they could still very much lose this tournament.
Solomon Grendel and Petey Garrett were out next, and both men had the same steely looks of determination on their faces as their opponents had. They too knew that the points were close. They knew that three points weren’t going to get it done this week, they had to pin or submit either Yutaka Tendo or Mitsuru Yahagi in order to with the Tag League and the Texas Heritage Tag Titles.
Everyone was on edge except Kazuo Akamatsu, he berated both members of the Superior FT as well as the fans before the referee forced him out of the ring and rang the bell.
The two smaller men, Garrett and Tendo, started the match out for their teams, and they started it out quickly. Both men were known for their speed, agility, and striking, and with the tournament and the titles on the line you could bet they were both out to get an early advantage for their teams. Neither man could score an advantage though, and eventually both tagged out to their partners.
Yahagi’s strong style and Grendel’s submission wrestling were both teams strength, and the two of them worked eachother over for a while before Grendel took the advantage simply by frustrating Yahagi’s attempts to power his way to victory. After a while Tendo tagged back in, made a quick flurry of offense but eventually the Suicide Stretching Machine forced his will on the high flyer by grounding him. From there the SFT worked as a well oiled machine, keeping Tendo in their corner and tagging in and out, they worked Tendo for a good while before Kazuo Akamatsu could cause a distraction by jumping on the apron, thus causing the referee to be out of position for a tag by the SFT, and in position for Tendo to make a desperation tag to Yahagi.
The OHC took over, using sheer brute force along with the numbers game to keep the advantage and work over the tiring Petey Garrett in their corner. Grendel attempted to save his partner several times, even breaking up a few pinfalls, but for the most part all it accomplishes was taking the official’s attention away from the action so that Tendo, Yahagi, and Akamatsu could work over Garrett while the ref admonished him.
Petey finally made the hot tag, and Grendel came in and played his part as he cleaned house, even getting a good shot in on Akamatsu at one point when he climbed onto the apron to cause another distraction.
In the end, Grendel had Tendo locked in his Crossed Arm Cobra Clutch finisher, and Tendo looked like he was just about to tap. Yahagi came in to make the save but Garrett cut him off with a springboard missile dropkick. The SFT were about to win it all when Akamatsu pulled Tendo’s foot onto the rope. The referee was forced to make Grendel break the hold, but then he got up and made the call to kick Akamatsu out of the ringside area! It was too late though, because Tendo used the final distraction to roll Grendel up, and with a handful of tights he held Grendel down for the referee’s three count.
By a score of 25pts to 16pts, the Osaka Hate Crime had won the Texas Heritage Tag League, and in doing so had earned themselves the Texas Heritage Tag Team titles. Angus Skaaland was out after the match to award the new champions their newly minted belts, and Akamatsu and his boys celebrated the victory inside the ring while Garrett and Grendel made their way back up the aisle, disappointment marring their faces.
* As Akamatsu and the Osaka Hate Crime left the ringside area, Angus took a microphone from a ringside attendant and decided to address the crowd before the main event. He thanked all of the tag teams who’d participated in the Tag League for all of their hard work and congratulated the winners, though he did throw in a warning that in the future so much interference would not be tolerated in title matches within the LARIAT ring. He also made the official announcement that the Pine Street Posse and Firebirds would be heading to Missouri in the very near future to compete in the innovaPRO promotion’s tournament to crown it’s tag team champions, and he wished both teams luck there. Finally, he explained to the crowd and the wrestlers just exactly how the Texas Heritage Tag Title contenders would be decided, giving a run down on how the division would work from this point on:
“It’s really rather simple. In order for a team to challenge for the titles, they’ll need to accrue three points. Each tag-team match in LARIAT will be for points, regardless of the stipulations or participants. Each successful pinfall or submission victory will earn a team one point toward title contention, but any loss will automatically drop a team back to zero points. It is my hope that this will promote the most possible competition, and the best possible contenders for the Tag Titles in the future!”
He then again thanked the fans, and thanked them for spreading the word, as each event that LARIAT has held has brought more fans than the last. He talked about continued growth and even hinted that the first LARIAT show to be held outside of the Wrestle-Plex was in the works.
* Pride of Texas Tournament Final
Finally, the match that wrestling fans had been waiting on since Dusty Griffith left Wrestle Coast: Cascadia last year was about to take place. Not only that, but the Pride of Texas Heavyweight Title was going to be on the line as the Boise State Bronco clashed with his former partner and current nemesis Frank Dylan James.
Dusty was out first. He slapped hands as he made his way toward the ring, but he was all business. He was inside the ring and had his ring-jacket off and was being checked out by the referee before Frank’s music even had a chance to play. When the first chords to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” scratched through the building’s sound system things went haywire. The crowd was hot, mostly pro-Griffith but you’d best believe that Frank’s hillbilly insanity had it’s fair share of fans.
Frank hooted and hollered, his eyes wide with rage and his feet bare as the day he was born. He charged out of the dressing room and into the ring. He got to his feet and got into Big Dusty’s face immediately, something that Dusty didn’t appreciate one bit. Frank stuck his finger in Dusty’s face, and Dusty slapped it away. The two gorilla-sized grapplers went forehead-to-forehead for a second and the bell was rung to get the main event underway.
Frank didn’t hesitate, smashing his own notoriously hard head into Dusty’s. All this did was draw the former PNW Heavyweight Champ’s ire as Griffith returned in kind. Frank threw a wild right, Dusty answered, the behemoth’s stood trading punches in the middle of the ring. It took a lot, but eventually Dusty got the advantage with his lunchbox-sized fists, but not to be the one to lose a fist fight Frank went dirty and gave Dusty an Asiatic Spike right to carotid artery in the side of the throat.
And that was all it took for the Hillbilly Jesus to take the advantage. I dropped bombs on Dusty, forearms and kicks to the back and ribs, vicious chops to the chest, and teeth-rattling punches. Dusty blocked a punch and returned in kind, but Frank only grinned and smashed his head into Dusty’s face. As Griffith’s nose bent sideways a gush of blood came rushing out, and Frank pressed the advantage even more by forcing the now bleeding grappler out to the floor.
The referee had been instructed to be as lenient as possible with this particular match, so he never even started a count on them as he followed them out to plead for them to bring it back into the ring. Frank would have nothing of it, though, instead preferring to send Dusty flying hard into and through the ring-steps.
They battled around the ringside area, mostly with Frank in command, but Dusty did get his licks in, at one point putting Frank over his head with a nasty looking Tiger Suplex on the floor. He went for the half-and-half to finish Frank off, but the hillbilly mule-kicked him. The referee almost called it just as he called it on Rich Mahogany earlier, but he let it go.
They continued their brawling, Frank took the advantage again by reaching into the crowd and getting himself a chair to smash Griffith over the head with. Dusty recovered though, bulling Frank’s back into the guard rail before unleashing a devastating Rolling Elbow that not only rocked the Redneck Riot, but busted him open as well.
Finally Dusty got enough separation and rolled back into the ring. Frank shook the cobwebs loose and followed suit, and as soon as both men made it to their feet they were slugging it out again. Frank grabbed Dusty’s neck and choked him back into the corner. The referee counted but to no avail as Dusty grabbed Frank by the neck too and the two grapplers tried to strangle eachother. They took turns sending punches in, but they had gotten themselves tangled in the top rope and the referee finally decided to step in.
For his troubles he got shoved away by both men. He got involved again, yelling for them to let go, but this time he got two giant fists to either side of his head as both men punched him at the same time in the heat of the fight.
The bell was rung as officials flooded ringside with Angus Skaaland behind them directing traffic. Dusty and Frank has rolled their way to the outside of the ring again and continued their fight as officials were tossed by the wayside any time one of them got in the way. The fight went over the guardrail and into the crowd and Skaaland and his officials couldn’t gain control of the situation. The match was announced as a Double Disqualification but neither men stopped to recognize it.
They continued fighting as the show went off the air.
07/18/09 @ The Wrestle-Plex [270 fans]
1. Pine Street Posse def. The Firebirds (7:49)
2. Hell Riders def. Dirty Rydas (2:21)
3. Wyatt Bronson def. Rich Mahogany (11:37)
4. Osaka Hate Crime def. Superior FT (22:14)
5. Dusty Griffith DDQ Frank Dylan James (9:12)
