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$500 Plan Backfires, Antonio Rivera Picks Up Huge Win Over TV Champ Moran





By Michael Pagano, PPW Staff Writer


At the beginning of this week’s episode of PPW High Voltage, Tom Mitchell found Johnny Moran and Drew Adams with his henchmen backstage debating about something. Moran looked as though he did not want to see Tom, but then greeted him by saying “This is the one time you get to stay.”

Adams was telling Moran he would give him $500 to hurt Antonio Rivera in their match tonight to which Moran agreed. Rivera and Adams have had ongoing beef with each other since they broke up as a tag team. Rivera attacked Adams a few weeks ago backstage thanks to Adams leaving Rivera alone in their tag team match back at PPW Brawl to the Mall.


Before the match started, Drew Adams with henchmen in tow made his way out to the ring for a closer look at his $500 investment in Moran’s match with Rivera. We were also graced with the presence of Moran’s manager Ryan Race on commentary and trust me when I say I mean that as sarcastically as possible. As mentioned, this was a non-title match between the young, up and coming Antonio Rivera and the TV Champ, Johnny Moran.


Moran dominated the early portion of the matchup, and not only did Rivera have to deal with Moran in the ring, he had to deal with Adams on the outside who would lay in some stiff cheap shots whenever he would find himself on the floor. At one point in the matchup, Phil Bravado stated that “Moran’s just toying with him now.” Rivera did not give in though and showed some true heart during the matchup. There were several times when it looked as though he was down and out, but he kept fighting to stay in the match, kicking out of some big Moran moves.


Near the end of the match, Rivera began to pick up some momentum, taking advantage of Moran getting crotched on the ropes. He became the aggressor in the match and put Moran on his heels. Drew Adams got onto the apron to try and distract Rivera and help Moran pick up the win, but it backfired big time on the rich boy from Honesdale. Moran knocked Adams to the floor with a punch that was intended for Rivera, and Rivera took advantage. He rolled up the TV champ for the 1,2,3 and picked up a huge win.


After clearly being in Moran’s corner throughout the match on commentary, Ryan Race couldn’t help but scream “No Johnny” after seeing his man go down to what he would call an inferior opponent in Antonio Rivera. Adams tried to get in Moran’s face after the match, but Moran was having none of it. He grabbed him and threw him down in the ring before walking out, signaling the end of their brief alliance.

In a post-match interview with Tom Mitchell, Moran clearly stated that “I got my $500.” He also wanted to be clear to state that it was a fluke that he lost to Rivera, and that he was no contender for his TV title. Moran made it clear that “Tonight was a mess up. I had grease on my shoes. I slipped; I fell backwards. Weight distribution, you need to pay attention to weight distribution okay, and that’s how he won tonight. Not because he’s better than me, not at all, but he’s not a number one contender.” Whether PPW nation agrees with Moran’s claims or not, a win is a win for Rivera. We will see if he is able to keep his momentum going in the coming weeks, and whether he is able to finally shut Drew Adams up in the middle of the ring.

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