DEATH VALLEY DAYS: ROAD REPORT: ROAD REPORT!

December 1st, 2025, I get a tweet from Sean Ross Sapp retweeted onto my feed. Mad Dog Connelly vs Slade is headlining ACTION Death Valley Days: Road Report on February 28th. Another show from the ACTION DEAN~!!! guys?? A distance I’m willing to drive in Red Bank, Tennessee?? MAD DOG CONNELLY VS. SLADE?? No exaggeration, I probably thought about this match every day following this announcement. If there was ever a singular match that was gonna sell me on going to a show, it was this. I knew I was going to be at this regardless of what it took. Thankfully, it just took asking a couple questions, a dollar or two, and a very supportive girlfriend who’s willing to make long drives with me. Really though, I would’ve beat up whoever I needed to if it came to that! My dad raised me on Mirko Cro Cop fights and occasionally I’ll pick up some weights, I know a thing or three. 

The other reason I felt compelled to make this drive is because 28 years ago, the DVDVR guys made the trek to my city of nothingness that is Sanford, North Carolina for an OMEGA show. This has got to be the only time anyone has come from out of state to visit Sanford. Instead of being the young guy traveling hours to Sanford, North Carolina for some awesome indie wrestling, Phil Schneider is now the guy putting on awesome indie wrestling that a young guy traveled hours FROM Sanford, North Carolina to be able to catch in person. 

After admittedly very little discussion, my girlfriend and I decided to head to Asheville, NC the day before the show to split the drive in half and also have some fun. Asheville has some pretty fucked up roads in it. Not in terms of actual quality, but navigating through them makes you feel so stupid. It’s just all fucked up. We passed through Connelly Springs, which unlike the towns namesake, seemed very calm and serene. The rest of this first drive is pretty uneventful. 

We end the night at our booked-this-morning Airbnb and arrive to a couple in the other room SCREAMING at each other. Worrying ensues, we’re talking with the owner of the bnb, getting ready to call the police until it just stops weirdly abruptly.  Did they say enough was enough and just stop? Did someone leave? We don’t really know, but we’re still on edge. That is until I hear the sounds of moaning and ass smacking. I did not sleep as much as I wanted to during this trip and this night did not help as this kept us up way later than I would’ve liked. It was all worth it though; the most disgusting, loud body-to-body contact I’d be hearing all weekend was still later to come. 

The morning of the show, we stopped at a small place called Five Points Restaurant and got a great breakfast then hit the road to Chattnooga! Once arriving, we made a stop at McKays, in which I picked up a bobblehead of NBA draft legend, Darko Milicic, and a copy of NFL Head Coach for the original XBOX so I can get Jake Delhomme the ring he deserved. We ate Greek food, and now it’s time to head to the world famous TWE Arena! We arrived at 6:45, which was a little after doors opened, and an hour and some change before the show. My girlfriend and I forgot our phone charger at home and were both on single digit battery, so we kicked it the old school way pre-show and just… talked. 8:00 PM rolls around and it’s time!

MATCH 1: ‘RABID’ RYAN MOONEY VS. DARIAN BENGSTON (ACTION CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH)

This was my introduction to Ryan Mooney and my first time being able to see Darian Bengston live. I was a fan of Bengston even before I saw a full match, as Daniel Makabe is one of my favorite wrestlers ever and Bengston has mixed in a bit of the Makabe arsenal with his and is a hell of a wrestler. Fun pro wrestling and a great opener. Bengston also has a great shoulder block which I am a sucker for. 

MATCH 2: ANGUS LEGSTRONG VS. OLDMAN YOUNGBOY

The intrigue I had for this match had me so excited to see it. It was in the top 3 matches I was most excited for just based on the fact that I did not know who these guys were or what I was about to see. It lived up to the hype that my brain built up for it, and was as great of an introduction as 2 wrestlers could possibly have. As soon as he made his entrance, I knew I was an Angus Legstrong guy. If I’m being honest, as soon as I read his name, I knew I was an Angus Legstrong guy. Wrestling accounts on twitter often post gifs from decades old matches with the caption “Why does no one do THIS anymore!?” And the answer to that question is “Because Oldman Youngboy vs. Angus Legstrong hadn’t happened yet.” 2 wrestlers that bring back what you want to be brought back, but are unique and genuine in their own ways, making it feel more like a modernized version of what you love and not guys just trying to recapture a moment of the past unsuccessfully or a schtick you are supposed to take half-ironically, which is pretty amazing considering how the match title ‘Angus Legstrong vs. Oldman Youngboy’ probably reads. They can be funny for sure, but not in ways that take you out of the match, which goes a long, long way. 

MATCH 3: ISAIAH BRONER VS. JAKE SHEPHERD

A lot of modern larger wrestlers operate on the “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” mentality and mix in a lot of different styles to various results of good or bad. These 2 though, the cover of the book reads “BIG FUCKING GUY THAT IS GOING TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU” and if you are judging it by that cover, you’d be very justified in doing so. Isaiah Broner is a BAD man. A good forearm can be hard to find, which sucks because I LOVE a good forearm. Thankfully Broner gives you a forearm that produces sounds that stick in your head. It is amazing Jake’s jaw did not drop off of his head at any point in this match. They traded chops and every time Broner’s hand collided with Jake’s chest, you tensed up. They were SO loud! Big Jake also got his licks in, delivering a pretty monstrous suplex on the outside, followed up with a splash that surely ruptured something in Isaiah’s body. There are wrestlers that would kill to have a move that’s as devastating as Jake’s standing elbow drop is! Broner picked up the victory after a pretty impressive F5. Just an epic battle of a big, strong guy that’s ready to take your head off and redden your chest and a big, fat guy ready to collapse your lung and give your soul a reason to leave your body. Broner gets invited to the SCI after the match and I am sorry for whoever has to line up against him.

MATCH 4: KASEY OWENS VS. ADRIAN ALANIS

This match is the battle of evil vs evil. They’re trying to out cheat each other, and there’s a lot of comedy involved in it. The highlight to me was when both men pulled simultaneous Eddie Guerrero chair spots. The crowd did not like Kasey, until they saw the guy he was facing. It was like a wrestling presidential election. You ask your family member who they’re going for, in this case your family member is the ACTION crowd, and they respond with “They both suck, but you’ve gotta go for the lesser of two evils.” And you just nod your head as you don’t really want to engage in this conversation any longer. 

MATCH 5: TIM BOSBY VS. SLIM J

Hell of a match. He has a lot of people that know how good he is, but it’s crazy to think there’s a very good amount of people that cast Slim J as like, an early ROH spot guy. He is a PHENOMENAL underdog babyface, especially in the south. I think part of it is that if you’ve attended southern indie wrestling even semi-consistently throughout the past 2 decades, you’ve probably seen Slim J. He’s well traveled throughout the region. He has an established familiarity with almost every generation that attends independent shows in the region. A great way that he capitalizes on this in terms of using it to strengthen his role as a babyface is he looks to the crowd in moments where he’s getting his ass kicked, using GREAT facial expressions and personal crowd interactions to make you feel as if you’re actually fueling the power he needs to make the big comeback. No one makes you believe like Slim. On the other end of things, we have Tim Bosby, who is great at cutting Slim off every time he starts to gain momentum, putting him though torture, and with his manager, talking the most shit possible in a way that makes you want to punch him yourself. Just great, great professional wrestling with a great, underdog babyface and a heel who is ready to humiliate your heroes while his manager insults every mother in the front row. Experience triumphs over all and OUR HERO, OUR GUY Slim J makes the comeback and picks up the victory. If ACTION DEAN~!!!’s ace is Mad Dog Connelly, Slim J is the people’s champ. Much like Paul Wall, who is surely the white rapper Slim J gets the most comparisons to. 

MATCH 6: TOBY KLEIN VS. NATHAN MOWERY

I was so amped for this match. I am so, so thankful to be able to see Toby Klein live. He’s one of my favorite wrestlers and participated in a match that is tied for my favorite ever in him vs. Necro Butcher at the 2004 King of the Death Match. That match has a lot of meaning to me and is the only match I’d ever written about prior to this show. I felt like a little child seeing Toby make his entrance. MOTHERFUCKING MR. INSANITY!!!! LIVE AND IN FRONT OF ME!!! VCR IN HAND! FUCK! I heard a child ask “what’s that he’s holding?” which was fun. Mowery is one of the most creative guys deathmatch wrestling’s had in the past decade so I knew this was gonna be cool stuff. We open up with the VCR to Mowery’s dome! No anticipation or waiting, we’re headed straight to hell. They bloodied each other up all throughout the TWE Arena using forks and skulls. Even 20 years later, Mr. Insanity is an elite bloody brawl around the building deathmatch wrestler. Mowerys creativity shines when he drops an on-fire elbow pad elbow drop on Toby. This goes way smoother than any time Mitch Page lit whichever body part he wanted on fire and jumped, whether that’s better or worse is up to your discretion. All I know is it was so rad to see a Toby Klein match in person, and I will continue to get excited to see Nathan Mowery on cards.  

MATCH 7: TANK VS. JAMESEN SHOOK (TWE CHAMPIONSHIP)

Tank is a southeast wrestling legend and Jamesen Shook is a guy that’s been doing great things in the southeast wrestling scene, so I was looking forward to this. To my total surprise, there were no weapons or overwhelming violence involved in this. An unexpectedly clean, pretty fun couple minutes between the 2. Fairly early in, Tank messes up his knee and can’t get up on his own. The Rev and the ref attempt to lift him up, but need Jamesens help. They look to carry him off when HE SNEAKS JAMESEN WITH A SURPRISE PIN! THE MOTHERFUCKER! This proves unsuccessful as Jamesen retains his title with a surprise pin of his own. I had fun singing Hot To Go after the match. 

MATCH 8: CARL GRECO-MALENKO VS. MATT MAKO

Oh man, what an honor this match was. Beautiful stuff! Matt Mako was the perfect guy for this match and looked like an absolute beast here. Seeing guys grapple at this level is such a sight for sore eyes after how much you see this style of match done shittily on the indies, which does make sense as these 2 are extremely great and some people probably should not be doing this style as much. Carl has not lost a step and is in phenomenal shape. I will not claim to be the most familiar. I’ve seen a fair amount of his stuff, never done anything close to a deep dive, but this match was everything I was hoping Carl Malenko vs. Matt Mako would be. Exciting exchanges and both guys really fighting to get the upper hand. The young man ready to snap the limbs off the old man, the old man showing these new kids how they used to get down, this is exactly the format a lot of my pick-up basketball games at the park took. I am also glad this match could happen in front of this crowd as everyone seemed to be super into what was going on. Thank you, Carl Malenko for giving us another great match, and thank you, Matt Mako for the great performance against a legend of the genre. 

MATCH 9: SLADE VS. MAD DOG CONNELLY

AHHHHHH!!!!! FUCK!!! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! I can’t believe this match. However violent it was on stream, which is still very violent I assume, it was 100x as stomach-churning being there in the building. No cameras or microphones on this earth can pick up the frequencies that were being created from Mad Dog and Slade’s skulls ramming into each other. I have seen so much shit in person, wrestlers get injured after landing on their neck bad, deathmatches, guys bleeding terribly after blading too deep, THIS is the most nauseating wrestling match I’ve ever experienced live. Even now, just remembering the sounds of the headbutts makes me wanna puke. It was disgusting, perverted, barely even legal battle and I loved it so much. Real fuck you, never give a fuck, if you hate me so much then kill yourself about it wrestling. The thud from Slade bulldozing Mad Dog into the wall, the cracks of Mad Dog’s knuckles slamming against Slade’s jaw, it’s a match that was so audibly violent, you could show it to the blind and they’d cringe in disgust. A match that is so beautiful in how ugly it is. It’s an MDMA high of a match and an experience that will leave the sounds of headbutts echoing throughout the TWE Arena for centuries. Every time you step in the building, you’ll hear the violence of where Mad Dog Connelly and Slade once laid it all out. Slade is an intense guy. He hits hard, he’s a terrifying man, and he brings an energy that meshes too well with Mad Dog’s. It works so well and I think its because it’s less of a crazy vs. crazy mirror match and more of “what happens if you stick a high-security prison inmate in the same room as a breed of dog that should not be legal?” Mad Dog Connelly is the best wrestler in the world. No one will make you feel like he does and if you’ve never seen a Mad Dog match in person, you’re doing yourself a disservice. It is the most passionate, terrifying, thrilling experience left in American wrestling. When he exits the curtains, it’s like being a Baltimore child in the world of The Wire whenever Omar is walking through your area. Screaming ensues, everyone’s scrambling away, you are SCARED. This is not possible if Mad Dog Connelly was not a guy that went all in and made everything he does so meaningful. It is giving yourself up for the art. A love so deep for pro wrestling and what it can be that it is impossible to not feel it. In an entertainment medium where the fans have massively embraced things having to be a certain way to be good or worthwhile, resulting in meaningless and same-y wrestling, Mad Dog Connelly is proof that genuineness will reign supreme forever. I can forget seeing something, I will never forget feeling something. 

After the show, I got to chat with a couple people. I was wearing a Ken The Box shirt and got to chat with another fellow wearing a Ken The Box shirt. We surprisingly did not mention Ken once, but did talk about how the show was worth our drives. I was able to secure copies of MethLab Battlarts from JR Goldberg, which I have not read yet but am excited to as I love IWA Mid-South and will always have time for Ian Rotten matches. He was a very nice guy and I appreciated the conversation a lot. I made sure to shake the hand of Phil Schneider as I felt like I had to interact with 1 of the at most 4 guys in the entire country that has ever visited Sanford. My girlfriend has became a wrestling fan and that is almost entirely because of Mad Dog Connelly so I would also like to shout out him for just being the most badass wrestler in the country and being so clearly passionate about the shit he does.  

It’s a night I’ll never forget and I think the best wrestling show I’ve had the privilege of attending. Well worth the 15 hour round trip. Everyone involved in this will forever have a fan in me and I thank them so much for giving me the ability to feel like a fan again. Everyone did what they do best at the best level they do it. A lot of guys just being themselves and playing to their strengths and it worked as perfect as it possibly could in every match. I’m now on the way back to Sanford and will be there for the foreseeable future. However, if the ACTION DEAN~!!! crew is anywhere within 10 hours of me, I’ll be there. Unforgettable night of professional wrestling.