Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's World League Wrestling show at the Race Wrestling Arena in Troy, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
I had a comedy show last Thursday, so I missed a National Wrasslin' League show in St. Louis for the first time since its inception. The comedy show ended around 9:00, so I decided to go straight to the Casa Loma Ballroom to touch base with everyone and catch the tail end of the show. I got there in time for the start of a really good Maverick vs. Dez Wellston main event...I may do a full commentary on that show once the YouTube videos are out. (EDIT: Done!) The attendance had improved a great deal, especially in terms of how the floor seating looked. That's a very good sign and hopefully the move to Sundays will help as well.
NWL's big news was the signing of former Ring Of Honor Heavyweight Champion Kyle O'Reilly; he will compete at the first Sunday event. From the way he talked in his live promo, he may be winding down his career...we shall see. The St. Louis Title tournament saw Todd Letterman, Matthew Grundy, Cornell Douglass, and Maverick advance to the semifinals; also, Arik Cannon made a special appearance on the heels of his 205 Live appearance and wrestled Davey Gibson.
Saturday was a busy night with three shows in the greater St. Louis area. Pro Wrestling Resurgence began their Heavyweight Title tournament with Everett Connors, Paco Gonzalez, Brandon Espinosa, and Jason Roberts moving on to the semifinals; Mat Fitchett defeated Kyle O'Reilly(who is suddenly a lot more active in the immediate area) in the main event. The Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance also had a show with the continuation of their Heavyweight Title Series; Gary Jackson defeated Brian James in South Broadway's first-ever cage match.
My decision was based on the special guest appearance, one that had been booked even before the man became an upcoming member of the WWE Hall Of Fame: Kurt Angle. His resume speaks for itself, including the well-known Olympic gold medal and multiple title reigns in World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action/Impact Wrestling. The ongoing feud between Leland Race and Jayden Fenix would be settled at this show in a no-DQ match and Angle was appointed as the special guest referee.
Your ring announcer was Brian Thompson; your referees were Richard White & Martin Kattich.
Before the opening match, Heavyweight Champion "The Roman Dynasty" Karim Brigante(w/ Miss Monica Passeri) made their way to the ring in formal attire...Monica looked quite lovely this evening. It was a standard braggadocious promo about his title win until the interruption by "The Exclamation Point" Steve Anthony. Anthony went into double-entendre mode, saying he saw something that Brigante had that he wanted...and he wanted to hold it close and wrap it around his waist...and it was something he had once before. As it turned out, he was talking about the championship belt and not Monica. Anthony acknowledged that the fans have loved and hated him over the years, but they disliked Brigante just a bit more at the moment...so how about a title match tonight? General Manager "All That" Matt Murphy made an appearance to put his official stamp of approval on the bout.
"The Hybrid Ace" Jon Webb vs. Jack Gamble for the Jr. Heavyweight Title: This was Gamble's return to WLW after an absence of several months, plus the first-ever meeting between the High Level Enterprise tag team partners. Webb was a clear fan favorite and, while Gamble wasn't definitively a "rulebreaker", he turned up the aggression and the audience got solidly behind the champion. A lot of counterwrestling took place, as expected between opponents who are familiar with each other. Webb went for a running Frankensteiner and Gamble caught him in mid-air for a Blue Thunder Bomb, scoring a close near-fall. He also blocked an attempted Sliced Bread #2 to hit a TKO for another two-and-a-half count. Webb fired back with a series of superkicks and hit the Sliced Bread #2 on the second try, but Gamble rolled out of the ring to escape defeat. Once the match got back into the ring, Webb was able to deliver an Asai DDT to finally put away Gamble in 12:37...nicely done. The partners made nice afterwards.
Lucy Mendez vs. Stacey O'Brien vs. "Miss Natural" Heather Patera for the Women's Title: This would have been Part MCMXVIII in the eternal series between these three...I say "would have been" because it didn't turn out that way. Stacey complained about being in a two-on-one situation(as the lone rulebreaker against two fan favorites) and brought out new manager Camden Curtis; he introduced Miss Monica Passeri(now in wrestling attire) as Stacey's backup. The whole promo segment fell flat with the fans, especially since WLW advocates their "Shut Up And Wrestle" philosophy and they'd now had two talking segments. As a result, it became an impromptu tag team match (playa)...
Women's Champion Lucy Mendez & "Miss Natural" Heather Patera vs. Stacey O'Brien & Miss Monica Passeri(w/ Camden Curtis): Unfortunately, this was the low point of the night as the match wasn't very good. I don't know if it was lack of tag team experience or nerves in front of the big crowd, but it just didn't click. It wasn't all bad, but there was a badly-timed cutoff spot and the manager distracted the referee for a bit too long at the finish; at any rate, Stacey rolled up Miss Natural for the pin with a handful of tights in 8:09. I've seen better out of all four women, so hopefully it was just an off-night.
Rex Fults vs. Roy Lewis: This was advertised as a "Young Lions Division" bout between newcomers to the wrestling business. Despite having been a fan favorite at past WLW events, Lewis worked as the rulebreaker on this night. Lewis focused on the arm after Rex ran shoulder-first into the ringpost...both men really stepped up their games in front of the sellout crowd. Rex made the comeback and nearly won after a big running senton, but he finally picked up the victory with a Bossman Slam in 9:18.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count: Chocolate chip cookies, bottle of water(still going soda-free), and a bag of potato chips. Crossed paths with a kindred spirit wearing a Wayne's World cap...his name even matched the hat. Dare I say: Party on, Wayne.
"Kickin'" Kyle Roberts vs. "Superstar" Steve Fender: There was apparently a feud leading to this match but I'll be darned if I can remember it. (To be fair, I haven't been to a lot of WLW shows in the past year or so.) It was a good dynamic between the more agile youngster and the seasoned veteran; Roberts has impressed me in recent outings. Kyle used the old-school rolling bodyscissors at one point; the move left both men dizzy and nearly earned Roberts a countout win as Fender rolled out to the floor to regain his bearings. Roberts utilized his educated feet on several occasions and Fender's downfall was his attempt to match Roberts in that department; he went for a buzzsaw kick and Roberts avoided the move, rolling up Fender for the upset win in 14:30! While Kyle may have won the battle, Fender returned the favor in the overall war by laying out Roberts after the bell.
"The Roman Dynasty" Karim Brigante(w/ Miss Monica Passeri) vs. "The Exclamation Point" Steve Anthony for the Heavyweight Title: While Anthony had been advertised for recent WLW event as "Mythean Warrior Anthony", he did not use that monicker here. As noted, Anthony won the Heavyweight Title; it was in January of 2009 and he won a triple threat match with Steve Fender and Eugene Dinsmore to capture the belt. However, his reign was short-lived as he lost the title to Fender after two months. (WLW's Heavyweight Title history has quite the lineage with names including Haku, Trevor Murdoch, The Barbarian, Butch Reed, Takao Omori, Ron Powers, Ron Harris, Takeshi Morishima, Rick Steiner, Chris Masters, Go Shiozaki, and Ace Steel.) Haven't seen nearly enough of Anthony; he's competed all over the place and traded the NWA Jr. Heavyweight Title with Jushin "Thunder" Liger. This was a really good championship match as Anthony had the edge in experience and agility; on the other side, Brigante had the edge in size and power (as well as the presence of Monica in his corner). Brigante took advantage of a missed slingshot Lionsault to deliver a Paydirt, scoring a near-fall. He tried for a double-leg pin out of the corner with feet on the ropes but that only got a two-count as well. Monica had to distract the referee when Anthony had Brigante in the Crippler Crossface; Anthony released the hold to go after her, but the distraction allowed Karim to recover and deliver a pop-up forearm smash. The champion finished with the roaring elbow in 16:59 to retain his title...but it wasn't easy by any means.
Before the main event, promoter Harley Race came out to speak to the fans...he's beeen using a motorized wheelchair in recent times, but he was able to walk a bit with the aid of a walker on this night. Harley thanked the fans for their support...especially on this night with a packed house in the Race Wrestling Arena!
"The Legacy" Leland Race vs. Jayden Fenix, no-DQ match, special guest referee Kurt Angle: Race and Fenix had traded wins in previous months, including last month's bout in the Heavyweight Title tournament when Fenix blatantly got disqualified. Angle had already been scheduled as a special guest, but was recruited to officiate this important feature bout. Given the stipulations, he didn't have to do a lot of rule-enforcing...Race and Fenix brought out the heavy artillery, including a chair and leather strap. Fenix set up Race on the timekeeper's table and attempted a swanton bomb off the second rope, but Race moved out of the way and Fenix crash-landed badly on the table. Fenix grew increasingly frustrated with Angle's officiating and eventually lost his cool, shoving and then punching the soon-to-be WWE Hall Of Famer. However, the gold-medalist was quickly back to his feet and made Fenix pay for his actions with an Olympic Slam! That left both men down, but the tide had effectively been turned for good...Race finished the job with the Go 2 Sleep in 16:38!
After the match, Leland was happy about putting his issue with Fenix to rest...but he had other goals in mind, specifically the WLW Heavyweight Title. He hadn't held it in a year and a half since Trevor Murdoch screwed him out of the championship, but he had his eye back on the prize and issued a challenge to Karim Brigante...stay tuned, as they say. Their return to Troy MO will be on Saturday, April 1st.
Post-show, myself, Brian Kelley, and "Photo Joe"(who takes pictures at a lot of the local wrestling shows) made our way to Steak 'N' Shake in Wentzville. I went with my usual, a bacon lover's cheeseburger with fries. I had water to drink and a Heath shake (since I'd oddly never had the "shake" part of the Steak 'N' Shake experience).
This coming weekend, Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling returns to East Carondelet, IL with the quarterfinals of the Classic Title tournament. Scheduled matches are Flash Flanagan vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde, "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. "The Icon" Chris Hargas, "Ironman" Ken Kasa vs. "The Unstable" Dave Vaughn, and Ax Allwardt vs. Cowboy Marc Houston. On the other side of Missouri, the National Wrasslin' League returns to Kansas City, MO as their title tournament reaches its semifinals: "The Man Without Fear" Blaine Meeks vs. Lakota Red Cloud and "The Mile-High Magnum" Dak(ota) Draper vs. "The Connoisseur" Niles Plonk. Also on the card will be a first-ever encounter between The Blood Brothers(Davey Gibson & Mathew Grundy) and Royal Blood(Jet & Jax Royal). As for Sunday, Wrestling Over Everything returns to Swansea, IL with Leone Mephisto defending the Heavyweight Title against Brian Valor.
The final weekend of March will feature Pro Wrestling Championship Series on Saturday the 25th in Alton, IL, then the NWL's St. Louis offering on Sunday the 26th.
As it stands right now, April looks like this:
-Saturday 4/1: World League Wrestling in Troy, MO; Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in Lemay, MO
-Saturday 4/8: Pro Wrestling Resurgence in Swansea, IL; Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO; World Powerhouse Wrestling in Jerseyville, IL
-Sunday 4/9: National Wrasslin' League in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 4/15: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL
-Friday 4/21: Cape Championship Wrestling in Cape Girardeau, MO
-Sunday 4/23: National Wrasslin' League in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 4/29: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in Millstadt, IL
That's my special comment for this, the tenth wrestling show I've attended in the year 2017. Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
No comments:
Post a Comment