AJ Styles, Luke Gallows begin expected final run of indie dates

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In Barnesville, GA, Saturday for the WrestleMerica promotion, AJ Styles and Doc Gallows began what will likely be their last run of indie dates in the U.S. Larry Goodman sent us in some notes:

Styles was set to face Jimmy Rave in the highly anticipated main event. Both men cut their teeth as pro wrestlers in Georgia with NWA Wildside roughly 15 years ago. It was a decade ago that Styles feuded with Rave in ROH after Rave stole his finishing move.

The match morphed into a tag match (Styles & Gallows vs. Rave & Sal Rinauro) after just a few minutes of action. The call was made to save wear and tear on Styles, who is headed to England next week for three huge matches vs. Rey Misterio, Morrison and Jay Lethal on consecutive nights. The 450 fans in Barnesvillle didn’t seem to mind the switch. They were into the match full force, as they were for pretty much everything that went down at this event.

– Doc Gallows defeated Sal Rinauro via DQ in 6:05: Rinauro turned a handshake into a punch in the face and ran out of the ring, where he cut a promo talking about how WrestleMerica was built on the backs of people like himself and Jimmy Rave (unlike Gallows who has missed a number of show due to his New Japan commitments). Rinauro stalled and jawed and stalled some more. When Gallows finally got his hands on him, Rinauro sold his ass off. Rave sneaked in and speared Gallows. That led to an instant “AJ” chant and the save by Styles. Rinauro and Rave bailed out untouched. Beautifully done.

– AJ Styles defeated Jimmy Rave by DQ in 3:58. Neither the Bullets Club theme nor his ROH music was used in favor of his less familiar New Japan music leading to a rather flat entrance for Styles. Rave didn’t use “House of the Rising Sun” either. Oh well. They grappled. Rave bailed out to avoid Styles’ signature dropkick, and Rinauro jumped Styles for the DQ. Gallows made the save and got on the mic to make the tag match. Gallows said there was a lot of history with Rinauro and Rave, but the whole wrestling world knew there was more history with Gallows and Styles.

– Styles & Gallows defeated Rave & Rinauro in 11:56. They brawled all over the building. When the action moved inside the ring, Rave interfered to get the heat started on Gallows. A Gallows double clothesline led to the hot tag. Styles had Rave set up for the Clash, but Rinauro intervened with a superkick. The closing minutes were terrific with signature moves and saves galore. Gallows dropped Rinauro on Rave to break up his crossface submission. It appeared that Styles got dinged when Rinauro inadvertently landed on his neck. For the finish, Gallows planted Rinauro with a chokebomb and Styles pinned Rave with a Clash off the ropes.