APW TV Workrate Report: 5/7/11

We start off right away with a Jeckles match, so it's gonna be that kind of a week.

1. Jeckles vs. Vennis DeMarco isn't really setting my world on fire as an opener, but let's open mind this shit! Vennis' tights have Italian flag colors down the length of the leg, but it looks more like the stripe on Aqua Fresh toothpaste. Match starts off pretty nice as Jeckles throws some solid forearms, Vennis knocks him to the floor with a dropkick, then follows up with a nasty tope into the crowd. Don't remember seeing Vennis do a tope that often, and smashing into the front row of fans gave it a cool visual. Jeckles clotheslines the ring post after Vennis moves, and Vennis starts attacking the arm, to minimize the effect of Jeckles' Jokeslam. APW has always taught arm work it seems, going back at least to 1999 Boyce LeGrande matches where he would always do cool legdrops to guys' arms, so it shouldn't be too surprising that Vennis has some decent and engaging armwork. One move I liked in particular is when Jeckels was on all fours, Vennis grabbed Jeckles' arm and held it perpendicular, then mule kicked it. Looked real nasty. Jeckles transitions back to offense by hitting a drop toe hold on a charging Vennis, and Vennis splats into the bottom rope, allowing Jeckles to hit a nice 'Taker dropkick on the apron. Arm work kinda gets tossed out the window as we go into a "we're fighting each other while we're on our knees, because we're in a war!" forearm exchange, then Vennis gets crotched on the top rope and Jeckles hits the Jokeslam off the middle rope. I like the beginning, I liked the middle, but the ending didn't really go anywhere rewarding. Still, this was much better than I thought it was going to be.

"Out of Control" Matt Carlos cuts a promo that is very punctual and while he stumbled over a couple of words, I never got the feeling that he was anything but in control. Whether interesting or not, his words were his own. "You took me to the limit! I escaped with the skin of my teeth!" He did end the promo saying he was "OUT...of conTROL Matt Carlos", which was some zazzy annunciation, but not that out of control.

2. Main event is Derek Sanders/Alexis Derevko vs. Jody Kristofferson/Will Rood. Rood throws a decent forearm and a couple alright punches to Derevko, but it looks silly to have Rood irish whip Derevko due to the size difference. Rood especially should not do a flying shoulder tackle against Derevko, as it looked absurd for Derevko to sell it. Now Kristofferson's slingshot shoulder block looked completely awesome, on the other hand, but he probably has 40 lb. on Rood. I really liked the spot where Rood throws elbows from his knees, three really nice ones to Sanders, and then Sanders blasts him with one while standing. Derevko/Sanders pretty much take over the last half of this, and Rood is pretty good working as Ricky Morton. The hot tag to Kristofferson was good (and of course the ref missed the first couple) as Jody has some real fun hot tag offense after sitting on the apron most of the match. Palm strike, cool looking sit out axe handle/fist drop, big jackhammer, impactful spear. He really made the most of the hot tag. Sanders' team ends up getting the win with interference and Rood gets screwed out of the win again. Match went pretty long, almost 20 minutes, and considering Rood was getting beat on for about 14 of those minutes, and was only recovering on the apron for about a minute, his last comeback seemed a little bit much. But, this match was pretty decent and moved forward the angle along nicely.