[2000-10-31-Oak Hill, VA] Chris Hamrick vs Kid Kash

[soup23]

Happy Halloween everybody. Hamrick is dressed as a racist in his stars and bars gear but is able to still generate heel heat but jawing at the crowd constantly. I was happy to see these two interact longer than what they were getting in ECW and they delivered a good match. Kash gives a hellacious chop to Hamrick at one point and Hamrick’s control segment was very Southern based but effective. We have had a string of these good but not great matches to end October but while it was a long month as a whole, it did provide a variety of quality stuff from across the globe in wrestling. Kash mounts his comeback but Hamrick has some cronies out there including Mark Wolf that help Hamrick regain the advantage. Unfortunately, WCW rules still apply as Hamrick throws Kash over the top rope drawing the DQ. Lame finish but a fun ass match to close the month. ***1/4 (6.3)

 

 

[Tim Evans]

Hamrick doing the classic "heel threatens to leave if the crowd doesn't stay quiet" gimmick is good. Him being a heel in stars and bars in West Virginia is weird. Decent match with Hamrick getting more than he usually does. The Finish is really weak but vintage southern wrestling.

[GSR]

The ring announcer informs the fans that Chris Hamrick has demanded that they keep it down or he won’t wrestle here tonight.  Kash, clearly fancying an easy evening, encourages them to make some more noise.  Hamrick gets the better of the opening salvo, stepping on the back of his downed opponent and then strutting around the ring.  He bumps wonderfully for Kash, they may only be from hip tosses and the like but every one of them is picture perfect, before they run through a sequence of pinfall exchanges.  The fans are back on his case, I think about his appearance, to which he quips ”there ain’t no steroids in this body”.  You know, I can believe him.  Hamrick wants a test of strength and Kash teases accepting only to flick him a middle finger instead.  Kash lands on his feet off the monkey flip as we get another glut of near falls, a unique one seeing Kash turn a quesadora into a cradle.  Hamrick takes to the floor and, taking a play out of Tracey Smothers’ book, warns them that if they don’t shut up he’s going to personally slap each and every one of them.  Kash slingshots him back inside as ‘Confederate Currency’ continues being this wondrous bumping machine.  ‘Cattle Mutilation’ by Kash.  He whips Hamrick into the corner, but as he comes charging in runs into a back elbow which drops him.  Rear chinlock as Hamrick yells “I got him now!”  Optimistic me thinks.  Face first suplex with Hamrick bringing Kash’s face down onto his knee.  Kash with a corkscrew senton off the top after Hamrick had run into a big boot.  Hamrick catches him with a superkick only to telegraph the attempted backdrop.  Not learning anything, Kash then telegraphs a backdrop of his own, Hamrick spiking him with a DDT.  He heads upstairs but Kash swipes a leg out from under and hits a glorious top rope rana.  As he goes for the ‘Money Maker’ Hamrick kicks out a leg at the referee, felling him.  With the official down a pair of jobbers run out and help Hamrick who drops a big leg from the top onto Kash.  Amazingly the ref missed all this double teaming.  Kash starts firing back when Hamrick ducks a shot and launches him over the top rope for the disqualification.  What a horrible finish to what had been a good match up until that point.  Post-match Kash gives Hamrick a ‘Money Maker’ leaving him laying.

A good match with an atrocious finish; a finish which automatically knocks it down a couple of places in my rankings.  It always impresses me when ECW guys actually work hard on an Indy as opposed to coasting it, something both of these do here.  Nice to see Hamrick in a longer form match than he is getting in ECW too, and in a small environment like this it really makes you appreciate what a good worker he is, right down to constantly working the crowd, something that you don’t really see in ECW.  But that finish though...