Living in the South, you get used to almost never seeing anything in the way of frozen precipitation; anything aside from hail, that is, which is odd because it typically accompanies severe thunderstorms that hit our part of the world during the warmest, most humid times of year. We Southerners are more accustomed to sweltering heat than frigid cold, so on the rare occasion that the skies part and something icy does fall we tend to panic (sometimes unnecessarily as school districts, government offices, businesses, etc. located here have been criticized - read, made fun of - for being too quick to pull the trigger on closing up shop at merely the threat of wintry weather). Bread and milk become hard to find, a fact I've never understood because neither of those are food items that hold up all that well (I'd sooner go for something canned like Beanie Weenies and Spam, personally, but that's just me), and people forget how to drive with any sense of caution. These sound like stereotypes regarding Southern culture but that's the thing about stereotypes, usually they're at least partially true which is what makes them funny and/or offensive depending on your point of view.
People in my adopted hometown of Saint Matthews, SC talk about an ice storm that hit the area back in 2004 as having been a horrible scenario. I wasn't here for that one, however my wife and I did make it through a particularly rough ice storm back in January of 2011 when we were still renting a house in Orangeburg. Our home, cars, and everything around us was encased in ice during that event. At the time, it seemed like something so extreme that we'd surely only encounter it once every decade, if that.
As it would turn out, we got it again only this time much worse and less than 5 years removed.
Over the course of February 11-13, we (along with the rest of the residents of the midlands of South Carolina) endured what I have dubbed ICE-OCALYPSE 2014. The precipitation began as rain on the evening of the 11th then changed over to ice during the night. The ice continued for almost a full 24 hours, finally ending in the early portion of the 13th. My wife & I were out of work for two days because of the conditions. What was worse was the fact that power in many areas was knocked out for almost a week; we were lucky as ours was out for maybe 5 hours, total, over the entire two days we were at home. Power lines, trees, and other structures were severely damaged. The terrain began to take on the look of an area that had been hit by a hurricane instead of an ice storm thanks to all the downed limbs and trees.
I'm going to stop writing at this point and let the following pictures do (most of) the talking.
My wife and I both complained when a crew showed up to begin clearing the wooded lot beside our house to make room for a new house to be built about a month or so ago. What we didn't realize then was that they were more than likely doing us a huge favor as certain of those trees were either dead or dying. I fully believe had they not done what they did, at least one of those trees would've wound up on our house as two of them were huge pines. Just goes to show you that when you think your world is changing into something you don't want, oftentimes what it becomes is exactly what you need.
Here we are literally a week removed from the storm and aside from the huge piles of limbs stacked along the road you can hardly tell that 7 days ago our little town was covered in ice. The ice storm wasn't the last encroachment of Mother Nature that we'd encounter, though. This past Friday, February 14, we had an earthquake of all things!
The shake was centered on Edgefield, SC but it was felt all over the Carolinas. My wife & I happened to have been in our kitchen when it happened (why we were in our kitchen at nearly 10:30 PM is a story for a different time) and we knew something had caused the house to rumble. How did we know? My wife keeps a piece of cookware from Pampered Chef in our microwave; it's technically called a deep-covered baker but I refer to it as the voodoo pot because it's magical in what it can do with food. It's a heavy clay pot, more or less, and when the quake began we heard a rattling noise coming from the area of our range. My wife thought there was a pipe rattling behind the wall but I knew there were no pipes in that area. Turns out the rattling we heard was that of the lid on the voodoo pot shaking against the body of the vessel.
Remember how I said frozen precipitation is rare in South Carolina? Earthquakes aren't unheard of but they're even more rare. I'm not saying what we're witnessing is a Biblical event, but at this point if a plague of locusts hits I wouldn't be too terribly shocked.
The allure of a professional wrestling event being held less than an hour's drive from my home was enough to get me out of the house on a Sunday evening for WrestleForce's February 2014 show, a card that was dubbed AGGRESSION.
[SIDE NOTE: I am a stickler about certain things when it comes to professional wrestling. If you know me in real life or have been reading this blog for any length of time, that should come as no surprise. One of the biggest problems I have with how small-time wrestling federations like WrestleForce do business is prominently displayed in the poster above. I'll give you a hint - it's not the excessive graphics and color choices that make it difficult to read. What else could it be? The championship belt. That belt should be the single biggest reason why every man on your shows is there, because they want to wear gold around their waist. The belt should be an iconic, unique trophy for which competitors have an insatiable lust. How then can you legitimately put that over to your fan base as being a valued piece of hardware when it is nothing more than a nondescript, mass-produced replica belt available online for less than $200? Yes, a custom made belt is expensive, but it's a worthwhile investment that I wish more indie companies would see as such. It adds a tremendous amount of production value to the presentation and it makes me, as an onlooker, respect the company that much more because I know they're taking what they're doing seriously.]
I'm not sure why promoters of independent pro wrestling feel the need to put a label on their shows like "AGGRESSION", "HOSTILE TAKEOVER", or "ASSAULT BY INVASION ". (For that matter, why is it always that you hear of a wrestling-based event as being invasive in nature? Do wrestlers never politely knock? If you've never noticed, pay attention to TV ads for wrestling in particular; you'll hear the word "invade" or a derivative thereof used to an offensive degree.) I guess it helps somewhat in getting the attention of fans because it looks good on a poster (<sarcasm> especially when the artist who made said poster has no fonts on their PC but those designed to resemble the text in nu-metal band logos </sarcasm>). It's also a knockoff of what bigger companies do with their pay-per-view events, like World Wrestling Entertainment's Elimination Chamber or Royal Rumble. Fans know what to expect from those shows because the title implies a theme or a style of match. In the case of this WrestleForce, the title was surprisingly applicable as there were a number of developments to progress their angles that involved aggressive maneuvers by the parties involved.
Match #1 - The Fortunate Sons (Jesse Windham & Billy Brash) vs. "cK1" Caleb Konley & Hexx
After the match, Konley became irate at his bodyguard Hexx. The two exchanged words in a heated confrontation but did not come to blows. Interim WrestleForce general manager Brett Wolverton took to the ring to ask Konley about the fact that he'd been sitting on a WrestleForce championship match opportunity for more than 8 months as "cK1" had earned the contract during an event held in 2013. Caleb assertively shook off the pries of Wolverton, saying only that he would use the chance when he saw fit.
Match #2 - 2-on-1 Handicap Match: Brady Pierce vs. Kevin Phoenix & Joey Rhymer
I knew when Kevin Phoenix (an African-American competitor who wears tights that resemble the paint scheme of the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazard - I point that out because, irony) and Joey Rhymer came out that the match wasn't going to be anything other than a squash (wrestling vernacular for a match where one combatant will get in almost no offense whatsoever, often ending with them losing in the most brutal way possible; it's an old tactic, which you don't see much anymore, that's meant to make the winner look like a monster), I just wasn't certain to whom they were being fed. Brady Pierce is a young guy with height and a physique that truly makes him resemble a young Randy Orton. Problem is, Pierce's body shows all the signs of that physique having been obtained mostly through the usage of a syringe. Some people have a problem with that, some don't - I could care less but I will say that all the pustules take away from his look. Brady won after forcing Phoenix to submit to a torture wrack.
Match #3 - 5-Star-5-Minute Challenge: "Mr. Match of the Night" Anthony Henry vs. Jaxson James
Match #4 - "Big League" Eric Bradford w/"Double-D" D'Arcy Dixon vs. "The Party Man-imal" Zane Riley
Is that a superlative wrestling match? No, but if you didn't laugh you're the real loser here. Bradford, Dixon, and Riley did a great job here and their ability to play off the reactions of the audience was great.
Match #5 - No Disqualifications Match: "The Fabulous Playboy" Bob Keller vs. BJ Hancock
There was a point in the not-too-distant past where BJ Hancock and another wrestler by the name of Michael Frehley were a tag team calling themselves The House of Style and being managed by Bob Keller. Those days are gone and now Keller is at odds with one of his former charges, that being Hancock, as the two have developed a feud here lately (despite the fact that Keller was forced into retirement a while back by another WrestleForce competitor, "The Southern Savior" John Skyler). This match was simply a good, old fashioned barroom brawl that saw Hancock and Keller go all over the building, including inside the mens restroom where BJ was the unfortunate recipient of a swirlie! Keller held his own for the most part but couldn't overcome the odds when Eric Bradford & D'Arcy Dixon interfered, allowing Hancock to get the win.
Match #6 - WrestleForce Tag Team Championship Match: The Love/Hate Machine (Steven Walters & John Skyler) (C) vs. The Bravado Brothers (Harlem & Lancelot)
Match #7 - WrestleForce Championship Match: Cedric Alexander (C) vs. Anthony Henry vs. "The Juggernaut" Jon Malus
The original main event of Cedric Alexander defending the WrestleForce championship against "The Natural" Chase Stevens had to be scrapped as a result of Stevens having difficulty getting to the show because of weather-related travel issues. Earlier in the evening, Alexander was called to the ring by Brett Wolverton for an interview alongside fellow contender "Juggernaut" Jon Malus only for the segment to be interrupted by "Mr. Match of the Night" Anthony Henry. Wolverton made the best move he could have in arranging for a replacement main event that would be a 3-way-dance pitting Alexander against Malus and Henry with the winner being crowned champion.
This was the best all-around match on the card and quite possibly the best match I've ever seen at a WrestleForce event. Cedric Alexander is money any way you look at him. Jon Malus is a capable hand and Anthony Henry continues to draw attention to himself, but they aren't in the same league as Alexander. Cedric won the match after hitting a brain-buster on Henry.
Match #8 - WrestleForce Championship Match: Cedric Alexander (C) vs. "cK1" Caleb Konley w/Hexx
Immediately after the 3-way-dance main event, Hexx attacked Cedric Alexander which prompted Caleb Konley to storm the ring and cash in the championship match contract. Try as he might to defend his title, Alexander was too beaten up from the combined assaults he'd faced during the previous match, eventually succumbing to a super-kick administered by Konley. With that, "cK1" is your new WrestleForce champion.
WrestleForce will be back in action in Cayce, SC on Sunday, March 30 as they present UNLEASHED.
For more information on WrestleForce, visit them on the web via Facebook and Twitter!
