HRW Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Sunday's High Risk Wrestling show at the VFW Hall in Cahokia, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

I did watch the MMWA show from May 9th via YouTube...semi-detailed results are in the blog entry for that weekend.  From what I understand, all of the members of Sean Orleans' team(from the elimination tag match in December) got "title shot at any time" contracts as incentive to be on his side.  The official word is that Espinosa's contract is the only one that remains...I must have missed Laurence Johnson's cash-in unless it was used for one of his Jr. Heavyweight Title shots since that time.

I plan to do video reviews of the Dynamo shows that I have missed in recent times, those being the Pittsfield show from October 2013(when Jake Dirden first won the title) and the Wood River show from the 9th.

Other weekend events included Pointfest on Saturday(previously the site of a couple of outing for Gateway Championship Wrestling) and Comic Con in St. Louis.  WWE Champion Seth Rollins and Paige Knight made appearances at different times...wish I could have gone, but I've gotten old and semi-responsible with my finances.  (One car payment to go!)

HRW has been an interesting topic in recent times.  The group uses a lot of outside talent, including nationally-known independent wrestlers, but it doesn't seem to draw very well.  A number of factors could play into this, including higher ticket prices and scheduling of shows on Sunday afternoons.  The promotion decided on a change of scenery, moving from the Bel-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville to the VFW Hall in Cahokia(a different venue than previous indie shows I had attended in the town).  I don't know how much the promotion makes from video-on-demand and DVD sales, so I couldn't say if that's making up the difference.

As it turned out, this show was no exception as the draw wasn't very good.  The last two shows have fallen on holiday weekends(Easter & Memorial Day) so that could have been a factor.  Despite the low turnout, the fans in attendance were into the show for the most part...just wish that would translate to ticket sales.  It's not like the shows are bad...the matches have been good.  Maybe it's the lack of consistent storylines...I don't think A.C.H. had any actual feuds as champion.  On that note...

Lineup changes:  Promoter Frank Thurman announced a week or two ago that Heavyweight Champion A.C.H. would not be at the show, resulting in a vacating of the title since he hadn't defended it since December.  (A.C.H. wrestled for AAA in Mexico this past weekend.)  His scheduled opponent Louis Lyndon would face the winner of the Takaaki Watanabe vs. Blake Edward Belakis match for the championship.  John Wayne Murdoch & Reed Bentley were absent; they were scheduled to face Team I.O.U.

I was met by a surprise as I walked in the door:  Angelina Love was sitting at the merchandise table along with Davey Richards.  It took a second for it to click in my head that they were a thing...in fact, I believe they got engaged recently.  Hope those crazy kids can make it.

Your ring announcer was Steve Murphy; your referees were Brian Stoltz & Nick Ridenour.

Takaaki Watanabe vs. Mike Outlaw(w/ Magic Man):  Outlaw had been scheduled to team up with a mystery partner against the debuting Forbidden City Warriors, but Magic Man brought out Watanabe as a mystery opponent in the name of friendly competition.  (The Warriors would take the place of Murdoch & Bentley against Team I.O.U. later in the show.)  Watanabe competes for New Japan Pro Wrestling and worked Ring Of Honor's shows this past week; he made one appearance for St. Louis Anarchy, challenging Gerald James for the Heavyweight Title.

They had a solid opening bout; Outlaw fought out of Watanabe's STO and delivered his middle-rope springboard European uppercut.  However, Watanabe avoided the High Noon(top-rope elbowdrop) and hit the STO on the second try for the win in 6:40.  After the match, Blake Belakis clipped Watanabe's knee from behind...Louis Lyndon ran him off before he could do any more damage, but the point had been made:  Belakis wanted to weaken Watanabe before their contenders' match.

"The Brown Bomber" Keon Option vs. "Dirdey" Jake Dirden:  Dirden fist-bumped with the ringsiders, but he started working heel once it became apparent that Option was the more fan-friendly of the two.  I think this was originally Option vs. Justin D'Air; not sure why it was changed.  At any rate, Option gave him a good fight and even escaped the Asiatic Spike setup, but Dirden put him down with a chokeslam in 8:15.

"The Midwest Jackass" Dale Patricks vs. Jack Verville vs. "The Blue-Eyed Devil" Tripp Cassidy, three-way dance:  This was my first look at all three men; I recognized the names of Patricks and Cassidy from IWA Mid-South show listings.  Patricks came out to "YMCA" by the Village People and was the fan favorite of the match.  Had never heard of Verville before he was announced as appearing on this show.  It was your standard-formula three-way match with the two heels taking turns against Patricks...but Patricks fought off Cassidy long enough to eliminate Verville with a cradle piledriver in 8:25.  Tripp was the largest man in the match and tried to control things with his power advantage, but Patricks pulled out the final win with a frog splash off the second rope in 11:32.  Nicely done.

Davey Richards vs. Tony Kozina:  Kozina's entrance music was "I Love" by Tom T. Hall...just go listen to it.  He seemed embarrassed by the music and Davey made fun of him for it.  That inspired the fans to chant "Quack" to rile him up.  Kozina was in full klutz mode as he tripped over the ropes a few times, prompting a few more chuckles from his longtime buddy and opponent for the evening.  Kozina actually took a tumble off the top rope when he stood up to deliver a move and bumped his head on a ceiling tile...I'm sure there's a joke here somewhere about not thinking his head would touch the ceiling.  (HAHAHAcuzhe'sshort.)  Anywho, it was an entertaining match mostly because it was something different than you would expect from these two...thumbs up from this dork in the crowd.  The finish involved Tony slipping off the turnbuckles AGAIN and stumbling backwards into a schoolboy trip from Davey, leading to Davey getting the pinfall by pure accident in 13:39.  Richards shrugged it off and invited Kozina back into the ring for a post-match hug(HUG IT OUT~!)...but some smart-aleck at the sound board cued up "I Love" again and Kozina got upset.  Davey blocked the incoming cheapshot and...kissed him?  Okay, sure, we'll go with that.

Takaaki Watanabe(w/ Magic Man) vs. Blake Edward Belakis:  The winner would face Louis Lyndon later in the show for the vacant HRW Heavyweight Title.  Magic Man seems to hitch his wagon to whoever's convenient, but he does have that Japanese wrestling background.  Belakis obviously targeted the knee that he injured earlier in the show...I liked that they set up the story and clearly positioned him as the heel due to the cheapshot.  Watanabe made the comeback, but Belakis hung onto the referee and delivered a mule kick to the Universal Weak Point(tm).  One rollup with a handful of tights later, Belakis heeled his way to victory in 7:50.

Intermission~!  Water fountains are good.  Got a burger and a can of root beer.  Yes, I keep track of everything.  Shut up.

"The Supercharged Superstar" Bolt Brady(w/ Magic Man) vs. "Diamond Cut" Ace Perry vs. "Never Say Die" Josh Crane:  Two more new faces appeared in this matchup, both familiar names from recent IWA Mid-South shows.  Perry was featured on last week's RAWlternative webshow in a match with Jimmy Jacobs...a bout that was highlighted by a very insistent female fan chanting Perry's name for practically the entire match.  (From what I understand, the fan is autistic and Ace actually took her to her prom...aww.)  Don't think we saw all these guys are capable of doing...this one was relatively short and I hope to see Perry and Crane again sometime.  This was one-fall and Brady pinned Crane after the Tesla Coil(Angel's Wings-into-lungblower) in 6:05.

Team I.O.U.(Nick Iggy & Kerry Awful) vs. The Forbidden City Warriors(Great Akuma & Jun Hado):  Had heard a lot about I.O.U., especially their series with The Hooligans.  They're a fun duo with a Steiner Brothers vibe; Iggy's the straight-up wrestler and Awful is the big fun-loving goofball.  I hadn't seen the Forbidden City Warriors before; a quick Google search tells me that they're central Illinois guys and have competed for Proving Ground Pro.  I had to look up who was who; Akuma was the guy with longer hair and red face paint and Hado was the guy with shorter hair and green paint.  Dug both teams; Iggy & Awful are an entertaing act.  Iggy took the abuse, Awful cleaned house after the hot tag.  Awful got the pin on Akuma after a unique finisher; Iggy dropkicked Akuma in the head as Awful held him in slam position, giving extra oomph to Awful's Michinoku Driver.  That ended the match at the 9:54 mark.

Louis Lyndon vs. Blake Edward Belakis for the vacant Heavyweight Title:  These guys had my favorite match on the previous HRW show with Lyndon winning to earn a title shot.  Belakis has been a consistent presence on these shows and was in the finals of the tournament to crown the original champion.  These two delivered once again; some people just click well with each other.  I'm sure they would have done more in front of a bigger audience, but they put on a good show for the people that were there.  Lyndon hit a killer suicide dive-into-DDT move at one point.  The referee was knocked down by accident and Belakis delivered a low blow, then rolled up Lyndon...for two.  (Should have held the tights, Blake.)  While he didn't get the win, Lyndon was weakened enough that Belakis went on to win after a running palm strike(LIGER~!) in 14:42.

Belakis is your second High Risk Wrestling Champion...but he didn't have long to celebrate as Magic Man confronted him.  That distraction enabled Takaaki Watanabe to enter the ring and catch Belakis by surprise with the STO.  That sent the fans home happy...Belakis stayed down for a while, stumbled out of the ring, and had to literally be dragged back through the curtain by the ringside security people.  Har har.

HRW is going monthly as they're running in June with Tommaso Ciampa and Silas Young announced for the show...we'll see if they do better in their return engagement.  They've finally got a few stories going...and we'll see if the Tag Team Title situation will be addressed.

Six shows down for the month of May, two to go...here are the "dates and deets" for the upcoming weeks, as they say:

-Saturday 5/30:  World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Sunday 5/31:  Wrestling Invades America in Swansea, IL

-Friday 6/5:  Ring Of Honor in Collinsville, IL
-Saturday 6/6:  Metro Pro Wrestling in Kansas City, KS (may bum a ride from somebody, stay tuned)
-Saturday 6/13:  Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO; Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Friday 6/19:  Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Glen Carbon, IL
-Saturday 6/20:  Southern Illinois Championshp Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL
-Friday 6/26:  World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Saturday 6/27:  World Powerhouse Wrestling in Hartford, IL
-Sunday 6/28:  High Risk Wrestling in Cahokia, IL

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.