[2000-07-14-IWC SoCal] Ricky Reyes vs Smooth Billy D

[GSR]

Smooth Billy D comes out looking like a member of the Jackson 5 with a great afro, white flares and silver sparkly shirt.  Turns out the afro is a wig sadly.  D makes the most of his size and power advantage, just lifting Reyes off his feet and dumping him to the mat after he grabs a side headlock.  When the same happens again, Reyes slides to the floor, grabs his title belt and heads back towards the dressing room.  There’s plenty of time left on the counter so no fear of an early finish here!  Still, he returns only just in time to beat the count, tripping D whilst still on the outside.  Slingshot senton followed by a baseball slide dropkick.  Crossbody for a two.  D reverses the Irish whip and lands a spinebuster for a two of his own.  Side kick and Reyes is off to the dressing room again, this time D is in pursuit though and drags him back to the ring.  Reyes with a dropkick to the knee and he then goes about taking one of Smooth Billy’s wheels out.  Another Irish whip is reversed and D with an impressive looking military press, however this immediately renders the previous few minutes where Reyes had worked over his leg as inconsequential.  Running powerslam into the corner and now he remembers to sell that leg!  The official is standing too close to Reyes and I smell a ref bump coming.  Yup, Reyes pulls him in front of him and then scoots out the way of a charging D who ends up squashing the ref in the corner.  Smooth Billy gets the visual pin after a ‘Sky High’ and with the referee still down, a replacement rushes out to take his place.  Dear me, now he gets bumped, Reyes pulling him in the way of a D missile dropkick.  The original ref has recovered and as D ascends to the top for a second time, Reyes pushes him into the ropes causing ‘the Smooth One’ to crotch himself.  To cap this off, the camera then misses catching whatever it that Reyes hits to give him the win.

Out of everything I am finding IWC SoCal an almost constant slog to get through and finishes like this don’t help in the slightest.  Rewind ten days to the 7/4 show and that weak DQ finish, well the officials (plural!) were manhandled here more than then and no sign of a disqualification today.  Billy D has got size, agility and potential, but the work between the two was clunky and at times it looked like they were stood there thinking about what to do next.