• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Pick Your Poison

Posted: Jul 23rd 2014 By: CMBurnham

The countdown to Showdown has begun and after the Sooner Stampede, UWE Champion Tim Rockwell knows that he must face Fuel for his title. But the UWE board of directors insisted that on July 12, both men would pick the opponent for each other. And that opened up a huge range of opportunity for both men to pursue.

The Villains opened the show by coming out and declaring their supremacy in UWE. This brought out Fuel, who had a bit of a surprise as he showed a video featuring a picture of Tim Rockwell aged about 50 years from now. As should have been expected, this action infuriated Rockwell, who decided to reveal is opponent for Fuel. That turned out to be Rolling Thunder, a man that Fuel had never faced 1-on-1, despite their having been around each other for over 12 years. It was a heavy contrast of styles as Fuel attempted to use the quick moves and high flying action he was famous for while Thunder relied on power and methodical aggressiveness. It forced Fuel to leave his feet, but the superkick came through as Fuel's foot connected with Thunders chin and the big man was put down for the three count.

That opened the show, but Fuel decided to wait until the end to present his opponent for Rockwell. Fuel said that since Rockwell had chosen a big guy like Rolling Thunder, he had decided to go in the opposite direction and go with someone small. This turned out to be a bit of a deception, as Big Smooth made his return to 1-on-1 action after a prolonged absence from UWE. There was no way that Rockwell could match the power and size of Smooth,but since Rockwell is an intelligent competitor, he quickly targeted the knees of Smooth, forcing him down and negating a lot of the size advantage that he had. Fuel continued to fit, though, finding the strength somewhere to get back on his feet and continue on. As it appeared that Smooth was setting Rockwell up for a big finish, Stevie Caballero appeared to panic and get up on the ring apron, allowing him to smack Rockwell. The crowd stared in stunned amazement. Had Caballero switched sides? Had he miscalculated? Referee Chance Snodgrass came to the announce table and declared that he had no choice but to disqualify Smooth for outside interference and then the plan became crystal clear. Rockwell won the match, but more importantly, he avoided suffering any further physical damage prior to Showdown.

Smooth was not happy with that result and immediately attacked both Rockwell and Caballero. Rockwell was thrown to the floor while Caballero was cornered and Smooth hit a massive Stink Face on the slimy manager. This brought MSWA Mid-South Tag Team Champions The K. C. Wolves out to rescue their manager and soon Rockwell was back in as well, but Smooth threw all of them off and continued to fight the good fight. The numbers soon became overwhelming as Anarchy 2nd and Zakk Sinizter arrived and it was 6-on-1. Even Big Smooth couldn't last against those odds for long. But the odds were soon evened as Brandon Walker, Jon Cross and American Made came to the rescue. Cross & Walker battled with the Wolves while American Made faced off against Anarchy & Sinizter and everyone fought to the back. This left Rockwell alone in the ring with Caballero and that was when Fuel appeared, coming through the crowd and took out both men! Seeing that he had Rockwell where he wanted him, Fuel set up for the superkick,but Caballero tripped him and Rockwell was able to put Fuel down with the Grapevine DDT. Tim then demanded the microphone and said that this was all a preview of Showdown IV before asking Caballero to do the honours. As Tim stood with his foot on Fuels chest, Caballero counted 1...2...and then Fuel kicked out!!! Tim argued with Stevie and then took the UWE Title belt and laid it upside Fuel's head. Rockwell dropped to cover Fuel and Caballero made the fastest 3-count known to mankind. As Fuel lay defeated, Rockwell stood triumphant over him, waiting for September 20 to arrive.

There is one more stop for Fuel and Tim Rockwell before Showdown IV. On August 16, the UWE board of directors as once again demanded that they face each other, this time in a tag team situation. Rockwell will team with the new UWE United States Champion Robert Lee while Fuel will team with the #1 contender to the US Title, Brian Breaker!