Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday afternoon's Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance/Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the City Hall in Hillsdale, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
MMWA/SICW hadn't done their back-to-school event in Hillsdale in a few years...I don't know if hashtag-Ferguson had anything to do with it, but it's a strong possibility. At any rate, free admission and free concessions are always nice for a wrestling show, especially an outdoor event for the kids with near-perfect weather conditions. I was told that a nearby school had a similar fair event nearby, so it took some time for the audience to fill out as it had in previous years.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were NIck Ridenour & Jay King.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. The Big Texan: Familiar foes locked horns to kick off the event. I'm honestly under the mindset that Texan is underrated...he's not the smoothest wrestler in the world, but he plays to his strengths and relies on his size and power. He can have perfectly solid matches with the right opponents, one of whom happens to be Gorgeous Gary. Texan dominated for a while, but hit the turnbuckles knee-first and Jackson began to target the big man's leg. Texan decided that he'd had enough and took a walk for the countout in 6:22.
Brandon Espinosa vs. Jayson Khaos: This was a first-time matchup between two area veterans; Khaos' long layoff meant that the two had never crossed paths before this. They had a fairly short and solid bout; hopefully they can lock up again in the near future. Espy won with the brainbuster in 6:18.
Moondog Rover vs. "Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent for the MMWA Heavyweight Title: Vincent was one of the handful of SICW representatives on a largely MMWA-centric card(despite the ring apron banners being from SICW). He was fighting a losing battle in trying to match up with the Moondog in popularity...so he had to delve into a slightly more heelish attitude out of necessity. Despite Moondog's recent wave of momentum, Vincent came very close to scoring the victory as he went to the top rope for his signature flying elbowdrop...but Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre) ran in to attack Moondog, getting Vincent disqualified in 4:45. This didn't sit well with Vincent as Wylde loudly griped that it should have been HIS title shot...Gary Jackson hit the ring to back up Moondog and they held the high ground at that point. SICW Promoter Herb Simmons decided a tag match would be in order for later in the afternoon, though Vincent & Wylde weren't happy AT ALL about being forced into a tag team.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Two hot dogs, grape soda, bag of Red Hot Riplets, bottle of water(necessary with the Riplets), and fruit punch soda. Hey, free is my favorite variety of food. After intermission, several bicycles were raffled off to the kids and they continued the raffle drawings as the show progressed.
Frodo "The Ghost" Meyer(w/ Khayman) vs. "The Aesthetic Of Athletics" J.D. Wilk: Wilk began competing with MMWA in recent months but this was my first time seeing him in a match in person. Frodo and Khayman were an odd pairing, but I haven't been to South Broadway recently so I don't know how that team came about. Wilk targeted Meyer's leg after wrapping it around the ringpost...Meyer is from the Silver King school of "Don't Be Fooled By His Stocky Physique(tm)" as he's surprisingly agile. Frodo attempted a comeback, but Wilk thumbed him in the eye to set up a DDT...he finished with a frog splash in 6:09. Khayman assured Frodo that he would win HIS match...
Johnny Park vs. Khayman(w/ Frodo "The Ghost" Meyer): This was a battle of fan favorites in theory...but Khayman's a dark sort of character so he could have been seen as the "bad guy" in this one. I haven't seen much of Park(fka Garrett Shanks) lately as he's primarily worked MMWA. Park landed badly on a couple of spots and may have tweaked his neck...eep. Khayman is a former MMWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion who recently returned after a long hiatus from the ring, competing for MMWA and Wrestling Over Everything...like the new look with the mask/facepaint combo, a la Pentagon Jr. Khayman got the three-count after his version of the Angel's Wings(sitout Pedigree) in 4:45.
MMWA Heavyweight Champion Moondog Rover & "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. "Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent & "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre): The "rulebreaker" side had a lot of drama as Vincent and Wylde had a ton of bad blood between them...Wylde kept ducking out of the ring and we saw a lot of indirect tags between the partners. It seemed like Moondog and Jackson would have no trouble with the situation, but the match ended in a no-contest in 10:46 when a bunch of wrestlers stormed the ring to bust up the match. I'm not sure about the motivation there, but it led to an impromptu battle royal for an MMWA Heavyweight Title shot...
Battle Royal: Moondog and Wylde continued their hostilities, leading to Wylde being arrested by the nearby police officers for damaging one of the kids' bikes earlier in the show. That left us with seven participants; Frodo Meyer eliminated J.D. Wilk to avenge his previous loss. Frodo was the next to go at the hands of Sean Vincent; Vincent went on to eliminate Jayson Khaos as well. Texan threw out Gary Jackson to avenge HIS earlier loss...with Vincent and Khayman battling on the ropes, Texan dumped both out at once for the win in a brisk 2:40. That earned Texan a shot at the gold...even though that match had already been announced for this coming weekend's MMWA show. Funny how that works out.
Anywho, good times...as previously noted, it was a busy weekend and my Saturday of rasslin wasn't over yet. That would be another story for another time so tune in next time: Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.
That's my special comment for this, the thirty-eighth 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.
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