David Ali Ignites Southern Honor Wrestling

Hello everyone! My name is Skylar Russell. This is my first time writing for The Wrestling Estate, and I’m using the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite independent promotions on this planet: Southern Honor Wrestling.

Based out of Canton, GA, just about 20 minutes north of Atlanta, Southern Honor Wrestling launched in late 2018 and has become one of the most talked about promotions in the state. You might recognize the company from when a few AEW stars popped up right before Double Or Nothing 2019 or you might recognize it for hosting independent stars such as Lee Johnson, Dani Jordyn, Shawn Dean, AC Mack, Zicky Dice and Logan Creed. Its storyline continuation and production values hold up against some of the top independents in America. The company does a masterful job mixing gritty and exciting wrestling with radiant and animated production. This is all backed by General Manager Gary Lamb, a local pastor. Running the promotion out of Action Church, he plays his character very well and is a great promo.

On June 4, I attended my second SHW show. Lamb announced that there were roughly 400 in attendance. (According to Lamb, the promotion hit 1,000 attendees at least once.) Fans even tailgate hours before the show begins.

The Southern Honor Wrestling World Champion David Ali started the show, accompanied by Austin Towers. Ali has a cult leader gimmick, but he plays it really well and it isn’t over the top. Ali and Towers lost to Logan Creed and Sunny Daze in a bunkhouse match at the previous show, SH27. Ali simply said “Alilujah” (which is a very clever catchphrase) and kicked Towers in the balls. The crowd was really shocked by this, and Ali just walked off afterwards.

AC Mack vs. Timmy Lou Retton

AC Mack is a guy I’ve followed for around three years at this point, and it’s a genuine shock he hasn’t been signed by anybody yet. This match was originally supposed to be AC Mack vs. Zicky Dice, but Dice’s agent had “something bigger” lined up for him.

I don’t know much about Timmy Lou Retton, but he impressed in this match. Both guys hit hard and didn’t hold back anything. Ashton Starr came out in the middle of the match in an attempt to throw Mack off his game. It’s worth mentioning that Starr is in cahoots with Zicky Dice. Mack is huge on the Georgia indies and was well received by the crowd here. Mack ended up winning with his “Mack 10” pedigree finisher.

After the match, Ashton Starr tried to attack AC from behind. Owen Knight, who is Mack’s former tag team partner, made the save for “The Mack Of All Trades.” Conveniently, Knight already had a scheduled match against Starr.

Owen Knight vs. Ashton Starr

I’ve only seen Owen Knight wrestle a few times, but I’ve seen Starr wrestle in other companies like Action Wrestling. Flamboyant and exuberant, Starr is really good with his leg-based offense. His star power (no pun intended) and how over Owen Knight was with the crowd combined for another really good match. Knight picked up the win with a F-5 type maneuver.

All Star Special (William Huckaby and Hold My Beer Hanson) vs. Honor Society (Jordan Kingsley and Stunt Marshall)

If you’ve ever been in the state of Georgia, you know that there’s a Waffle House on every corner of every street. There are around 437 locations in the state alone. In the town I live in, there are five locations for a population of under 18,000.

You might think all of that information is irrelevant, but it relates to possibly the most over act in all of Southern Honor Wrestling. Let me introduce you to the tag team known as All Star Special.

Comprised of Hold My Beer Hanson and William Huckaby, they come out to the YMCA song, which will get a very large chunk of the crowd to sing along. They’re the only act on the card that gets streamers, which of course are Waffle House colors. (For the uninitiated, the All Star Special is a Waffle House specialty.) I don’t know if this would work in any other state, but boy it sure works here. They even had me singing along at a couple points. They’re very loveable and easy to root for babyfaces.

All Star Special took on The Honor Society, consisting of Kevin Ryan, Cyrus The Destroyer, Jordan Kingsley and manager Logan Chase. They’ll also have honorary members from time to time, like they did tonight with Stunt Marshall joining Jordan Kingsley for the match. The Honor Society isn’t really anything too special, but Chase is a very good heel manager reminiscent of a young Jim Cornette. The stipulation for the match was that if All Star Special won the match, Chase would have to become their manager.

The action was fine, but the excitement was enhanced by the crowd. Huckaby had a massive hot tag that I’m pretty sure shook the building. All Star Special won in roughly seven minutes and carried a screaming Chase out of the building. During intermission, they even carried a still-screaming Chase out to the merch tables to take pictures with fans.

Sunny Daze vs. Skrilla The Great

You might recognize Sunny Daze from his participation in the Casino Battle Royale at Double Or Nothing 2019. He is currently a producer for AEW as well. Daze squashed Skrilla The Great in a match that only went about three minutes. Not a big fan of Skrilla being squashed, but it is what it is. Sunny is really good with power maneuvers and laying his stuff in.

Ben and Bull Buchanan vs. Technical Excellence [C] for the SHW Tag Team Championship

Technical Excellence, the current Tag Team Champions, are made up of Chip Day and Kyle Matthews. One of their opponents may be familiar to you – Bull Buchanan is a former WWE Tag Team Champion as a member of Right To Censor. He also teamed with John Cena in early 2002 as B-Squared.

Bull didn’t really get the reaction I was expecting. He wasn’t a superstar or anything of that caliber, but given the age group of the crowd I expected more of a pop. Ben Buchanan is his son and is still quite new to wrestling, only debuting in 2019.

Technical Excellence are well, quite excellent. They make a great team and have a great relationship with the crowd. It happened to be Chip Day’s birthday, allowing a “Happy Birthday” chant to last almost half of the match. Bull is 56 years old and can still do some good in-ring work, although he was gassed pretty fast.

It was a good match through and through, and Ben Buchanan had me hooked on some great near falls. Ben practically had the match in the bag at the end, when Bull tagged himself in. Ben was clearly frustrated with this, and it resulted in Bull getting submitted only seconds later. The storyline before this match had been that Ben was on a significant losing streak, and ol’ Dad was trying to coach him up and do the “Father knows best” thing. Ben has shown frustration with this, so the obvious heat move would be for Ben to attack his dad after the match.

However, Ben and Bull shook hands afterward and hugged. As Bull was headed to leave the ring, Ben kicked him in the back of the knee. He also stomped him out a few times to some pretty good heat.

Dani Jordyn vs. Hallow O’Hara

Dani Jordyn is a regular at Southern Honor Wrestling and is one of the reasons I decided to start attending their shows. Jordyn has a large internet following and I really hope somebody signs her sooner rather than later.

I’ve never seen Hallow O’Hara live before, but have seen her on programming such as Beyond and WOW. The match itself was okay, only going about eight minutes. It could have been taken to the next level with more time, though. The finish saw O’Hara go to the top and miss a dive, followed by a Dani J roll up.

Lethal Poison (Corey Hollis and Mikal Judas) vs. Gunner Miller and Joe Black

The story behind the next match has probably the longest buildup on the show. Lethal Poison, made up of Corey Hollis and Mikal Judas, have been trying to “recruit” Gunner Miller. A camera crew caught up with Hollis talking trash about Miller at the last show, leading to this match.

Joe Black had been sidelined with an injury for around five months until he made his return at the previous SHW show. Black got a mega reaction for this match, and his menacing presence reminds me of Samoa Joe.

This match felt longer than 13 minutes, partly because Lethal Poison cut the ring off early and kept Black away from a tag. Well, Miller’s hot tag blew the roof off the place. Judas and Miller had a great back and forth sequence before Black tagged back in and won with a clothesline. By far the most physical and stiff match on the card.

Logan Creed vs. David Ali [c] for the SHW World Championship

Logan Creed, fresh off his monster performance at SH27, was all but a lock to win the Southern Honor Wrestling World Championship from David Ali, my favorite act in the promotion. Creed is MASSIVE. If you don’t know, he’s also known as Mads Krugger in MLW. Both men were quite over, but Creed had the bigger reaction.

Ali has grandiose facial expressions and sells very well. A fair pro comparison would be Montez Ford. There was a point in the match where Creed body slammed Ali on the wooden stage and he sold it like a car wreck. The finish was wild – Ali had “accidentally” knocked the referee down, prompting him to attempt to use his signature barbed wire bat, but Creed stopped him. Creed hit his signature underhook facebuster and another referee came dashing from the back to make the three count and declare a new champion.

Or so we thought.

Creed only got a few moments to celebrate before the original referee regained his consciousness and discussed with the other referee, persuading GM Gary Lamb to reverse the call to a Creed win by DQ due to Ali’s attack on an official. The energy was sucked out of the building instantly. Creed’s moment had been yanked away from him by the self-proclaimed “Savior.”

Ali wasted no time leaving a mark on Creed, rolling outside and beginning to douse his barbed wire bat in lighter fluid. Ali set “Big Red” on fire and smacked Creed with it right on the dome. He ran off afterwards with the championship to close the show.

Final Thoughts: My second time attending Southern Honor Wrestling was a blast. Fun matches filled the card, balancing some kick-ass wrestling with great storytelling. I also can’t put over the production value enough, it’s top notch. As of this moment, SHW has become a must-attend show every single month.

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