I have to admit, I didn’t go into the Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling show at Augusta Expo on Saturday evening expecting a lot, because I didn’t want to be disappointed – and I hate to say it, but you almost expect to be disappointed by wrestling these days, not just the indies, but in general.
After three hours of surprisingly really good live MATW wrestling, yeah, not disappointed, to say the least.
What I saw was a lot of indy guys who could be working at the next level – MLW, TNA, NXT – with a chance to get the attention of AEW or WWE down the line.
More of what I saw:
- Young guys who have been trained to work to the hard cam, a big plus for the fellas who have aspirations to move up the ladder.
- Guys, heels and faces, who know how to work to the crowd.
- A booker who understands how to logically book a show from start to finish, as opposed to just throwing together a bunch of matches and calling it a show.
One thing I didn’t see:
- Any need for the use of furniture.
Backdrop
The bulk of the show was action in the inaugural Chuck Coates Memorial Tag Team Tournament.
Coates, a native of Durham, N.C., worked in the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling territory in the 1980s and 1990s, in a career that also had him working in the WWF and WWE, WCW and in Puerto Rico.
His final match came on March 22, 2025, in an MATW show in Thomasville, N.C.
Coates passed away on Sept. 8, 2025, amid complications from bypass surgery.
The 12-team tournament made up 11 of the 12 matches on the show, with the lone singles match being the semi-main event, pitting the reigning MATW champ, Alex Bryant, defending against Zander Keys.
High spots
Most impressive: MATW tag champs, XLG (G-Moniy and Gemstone)
Both guys are in great shape, are athletic, and they worked well as babyfaces in their two matches, a win over Sexy & Blessed (YKies and Chulo Montana) and an upset loss to Sent2Slaughter (Dan Maff and Shawn Donovan), which was the result of outside interference by the former champs, The Wonder Bodies (Big Body Lopez and Brian Morris).
Double-dipping here: the most impressive athletic feat of the night was the height that Gemstone got on a dropkick in the second-round win over Sexy & Blessed.
Best heel: Dan Maff
Maff, 49, is a 27-year veteran, with appearances in Ring of Honor, TNA and CZW, among many others.
Listed at 5’7”, 260, he reminds me physically of former ECW world champ Taz, and he had a lady in the front row opposite the hard cam wanting to put out a hit on him.
Cagematch reports that Maff has worked 841 matches over his 27 years.
It shows; guy knows what he’s doing.
Best on the mic: The Wonder Bodies
They were booked to lose their opening match, in the second round, to SOB Malice & Bonecrusher, but the former tag champs are The Midnight Express of this company, with Lopez, Morris and their manager, “Loverboy” Lee Petry, whose Facebook page features the famous Bobby “The Brain” Heenan quote – “There’s nothing better than a good, blind referee.”
The TV taping part of yesterday’s show gave The Bodies and Petry a lengthy pre-match promo, aimed at XLG, who won the belts from The Bodies at an MATW show in Yorktown on June 13.
After their defeat, the team returned to distract the referee during XLG’s semifinal match with Sent2Slaughter, allowing Maff to retrieve brass knuckles from his trunks, and use them to get the win.
Booking consistency
So, Maff used the knucks to get the cheap win over the tag champs in the semifinals.
The finals had S2S facing the pre-tournament favorites, CW Anderson and Brock Anderson – CW Anderson being the 32-year veteran with stints in ECW and TNA, among many others; Brock Anderson being the son of WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson, who was also at the show for a pre-show meet-and-greet.
Late in the championship match, with all four men in the ring, and the ref losing control, Anderson emerged from behind the curtain and made his way ringside.
Maff again tried to use the brass knucks trick, this time on CW Anderson, who was down along the ropes near the babyface team’s corner.
Also there near the face corner was Arn Anderson, who dispossessed Maff of the knucks, and used them with a familiar roundhouse left hand that sent Maff reeling, before Brock Anderson hit Maff with a DDT, and scored the fall.
This is great show booking – taking a tactic that got the heels over the tag champs in the semifinals and using it against them in the final.
Low spot: Small crowd
Not a big crowd, not at all – I counted 130 people in attendance, and with the listed ticket prices, my best guess at the gate would be either side of $4,000.
It’s probably $1,000 to rent the building, and I don’t imagine that the names on the card – Arn Anderson, Brock Anderson, CW Anderson, James Ellsworth, Rhett Titus – made the drive to Augusta County for free.
Augusta Expo has a history of being a hotbed for wrestling fans dating back to the 1970s – the likes of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, Roddy Piper, Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, “Diamond” Dallas Page, Ron Simmons, Jimmy Snuka, Tully Blanchard, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Sgt. Slaughter, The Iron Sheik, Blackjack Mulligan, Ray Stevens, Jerry Brisco, have graced the halls.
That’s a Hall of Fame in and of itself there.
We can do better – a lot better – than 130 people.
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Chris Graham
