Dynamo Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Knights Of Columbus Hall in Wood River, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It was a tough choice of shows on Saturday as Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling had their monthly offering in East Carondelet.  Several factors weighed on my decision:  Driving distance, lineups(such as they were), and potential to see the match videos in the near future.  Dynamo is apparently not releasing a DVD of the previous Wood River event from May(I went to Pro Wrestling Championship Series that night); I've seen most of the match videos but not all of them.  (If anyone could drop me the Keon Option-Brandon Espinosa or Mike Outlaw-Snitch matches from that event, I'd appreciate it.)  I should be able to catch up on SICW via Wrestling Explosion; thanks to Drew Abbenhaus for updating me on the goings-on.  December will be a big show for them as they'll have THREE cage matches; I should be in attendance for that event and it'll most likely be my final wrestling show of the calendar year.  (Scroll down for the other quick 'n' dirty results from the weekend.)

Dynamo had a nice little turnout for the show; I've always liked the Wood River venue as the crowd noise sounds great.  It's the anti-Glen Carbon in that regard, as I put it.  These shows have been a homecoming of sorts for The Professionals as they used to frequent the building with Metro East Championship Wrestling.  The show also featured the presence of former MECW Champion Eric Allen as a referee; though he's more or less retired from in-ring competition, he has contributed his artistic talents to the wrestling world in recent years (including CHIKARA).

The focus of the Wood River shows has been the younger up-and-coming wrestlers on the roster.  After the show-ending brawl in Fenton, Heavyweight Champion Ricky Cruz and Jake Dirden were both suspended from competition; Ricky was in attendance but didn't appear in an official capacity.  Jake Dirden was wrestling elsewhere on this night.  Several of the other Dynamo regulars were at SICW or Gateway Elite Wrestling in Lake Ozark(particularly the World League Wrestling crew).  Only a handful of matches were publicized beforehand:  Outlaw-Stallion and Bite Club-Professionals were announced Monday on the Brothers On Whatever Show on 920 AM(that radio station seems familiar for some reason...).  McNeil-Espinosa was announced on the day of the show.

Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your assistant ring announcer was Luke Roberts, and your referees were Michael Crase and Eric Allen.

Justin D'Air vs. C.J. Berry:  Berry made his debut at the previous Wood River show in a loss to then-new champion Jake Dirden.  D'Air acknowledged the low ceiling by climbing to the top turnbuckle and doing an impromptu ropewalk with the ceiling's assistance.  This was essentially a battle of fan favorites, though D'Air seemed to have the edge in crowd support.  Both probably wished there was more ceiling clearance for aerial moves, but it was not to be.  This was a solid opener; D'Air won in 9:20 with a running Diamond Cutter while pulling Berry off the turnbuckles.

Garrett Shanks vs. Sean Orleans:  Both men were making their Dynamo debuts, but this was Shanks' first match ever.  He portrayed a surfer/beach-type character and was billed as hailing from Santa Cruz...a nod to our old buddy Mike Gordon?  The match wasn't that great, but perhaps it was a case of debut nerves...we'll see how Shanks does in future outings.  I've seen Orleans in better outings with different opponents, particularly the best-of-three-falls match with Everett Connors this past spring.  Orleans focused on the leg for the majority of the match, eventually winning with the advanced curbstomp in 8:25.

Billy McNeil(w/ C.J. McManus) vs. Brandon Espinosa:  I was looking forward to this one.  C.J. is Billy's new manager and seems to be persuading him to the Dark Side of The Force, pushing him away from his usual fan interaction.  C.J. also put Billy in more conservative entrance attire, something that clearly didn't sit well with him.  As expected, the match was really good with Espy focusing his attack on Billy's arm to set up the cross-armbreaker.  McNeil rallied, but was momentarily distracted by McManus encouraging him to go to the top rope.  As a result, he missed a Spiral Tap and Espy set up for a flying knee strike...but C.J. grabbed Espy's foot to stop him.  Billy took exception to the interference and stepped through the ropes to argue with his manager, but that allowed Espy to come back and deliver a deadlift superplex followed by a brainbuster...for two!  McNeil came back with a rolling prawn cradle out of nowhere for a near-fall, but Espy got him in the cross-armbreaker for the tapout in 10:25.

After the match, Billy left the ringside area, but C.J. told the fans that he had a new protege that wouldn't "let him down" like McNeil had.  That heralded the debut of Jason Khaos...who turned out to be the artist formerly known as D'Mon G!  I hadn't seen him in the ring in a long time...probably not since his later days in Gateway Championship Wrestling in 2004.  He had been talking about a potential comeback, but this was his first match in about a decade.

Prince Moses vs. Jason Khaos(w/ C.J. McManus):  Moses is a trainee at the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance and recently made his debut at South Broadway.  Khaos has done some training in mixed martial arts and it showed in his updated ring style.  "The Prince Of The People" got some token offense, but C.J. distracted him as he climbed the ropes and Khaos cut him off.  Khaos got the tapout win with a rear naked choke(aka Samoa Joe's Kokita Clutch) in 8:43...nicely done.

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon-Endorsed Concession Count:  Two root beers.

Kevin Lee Davidson vs. Bahamut(w/ Sophie Darling):  Darling made her managerial debut at the previous Wood River show in the corner of The Snitch.  (Presumably The Snitch was in witness protection for the evening and couldn't complete.)  Bahamut is a bigger masked guy who made his debut at the 4 Hands Brewery show a few months ago; he also competed at the October event in Glen Carbon.  This turned out to be a really good HOSS~! battle between the two heavyweights and it was one of my favorite matches of the night.  I worried for the safety of the ring, as did several fans around me...especially when Bahamut slammed K.L.D. and followed up with a running senton.  On top of that, K.L.D. was able to pick up Bahamut for his Regal Roll...yikes!  K.L.D. picked up the victory after the spinebuster in 6:41...good stuff!

The Bite Club(Rocket Mapache & Jackal) vs. The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby):  Jackal was once against sporting a Jynx T-shirt for his matchup...notably, the Jynx T-shirts were also on sale at the merchandise table.  (Whatever happened to that Jynx guy, anyway?)  With new Tag Team Champions in the form of High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb), both teams are jockeying for position in the rankings.  Santel & McDarby won a triple threat match over The Bite Club and The Bumrush Brothers(Shorty Biggs & Outtkast) via Shenanigans(tm) to earn a shot, but they came up short against H.L.E. in Fenton so they're looking for another opportunity.  Rocket and Jackal came oh-so-close to capturing the tag team gold on a few occasions when The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson & Dave DeLorean) had the belts, but they haven't quite reached that level yet.  There were a lot of quick tags on both sides and the momentum swung a few times as the match progressed.  However, it was chicanery that spelled the difference; Rocket and McDarby were battling and the referee was stunned by an accidental elbow, allowing Santel to whack Rocket with his shillelagh.  That allowed McDarby to get the tainted pin in 12:10...are The Professionals due for another title shot?

Mike Outlaw vs. "The Lone Star" Curt Stallion:  These two have battled in other parts of the country (including a steel cage match!), but this was their first encounter in the greater St. Louis area.  Stallion came out as a fan favorite, but he established the tone with a more intense version of the standard SPORTSMANSHIP~! handshake.  They had a really good competitive matchup with Outlaw as the definite fan favorite and Stallion working heelish without outright cheating.  The finish saw Stallion attempt a top-rope Frankensteiner only to be headbutted off the turnbuckles to the mat.  Outlaw didn't have much ceiling clearance, but still managed to land the High Noon(top-rope elbowdrop) for the win in 12:49.  They shook hands after the match and all is well...

Thanksgiving weekend will be uncharacteristically busy this year with three shows on Saturday.  Dynamo makes its debut at The Ready Room in St. Louis, Wrestling Invades America returns to Swansea, and World Powerhouse Wrestling has a show in Collinsville.

December looks like this:
-Saturday 12/5: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO; Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Sunday 12/6: Pro Wrestling Championship Series in Alton, IL
-Saturday 12/12: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL

That's my special comment for this, the sixty-fifth wrestling show I've attended in the year 2015.  Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991

P.S. We are all marks.