Getting stopped by a train is never fun, especially when the train comes to a complete stop for a few minutes. Thankfully, I arrived at The River's Edge in Granite City with time to spare. Very good crowd at the venue...the venue had been remodeled since I was last there(April?).
Greg Jovi did the ring announcing for most of the show...after he dumped Mat Fitchett and walked off, Mike Gordon did the honors for the main event. The audio was difficult to understand for most of the night, which sucked for people who had to do important mic work...
All faces in the pre-show four-way dance...the fans were energetic for most of the night, though. Would have guessed at Bolt Brady getting the win since he was one of the more "regular" competitors for SLA/ACW, but good to see Shorty take it.
Don't know if they really emphasized the backstory for Vega-Cannon(Vega-Dingo rivalry plus Cannon's association with Dingo). Good match.
The tacked-on six-man tag set up a spot for Raven to get involved and say a few words...including a few old ECW stories. :) I hope as many of the young wrestlers as possible had a chance to talk to Raven...the guy has a wealth of experience and knowledge about THE BIZ.
Chuck Taylor was a replacement for Jonathan Gresham...Taylor was accompanied by Colonel Angus, who I swear was a heel manager at a previous show...oh well. Again, booking Chuck Taylor as a face with no kid-scaring is like booking Chris Hero and telling him "no forearm shots".
Gerald James came out with a title belt and I racked my brain trying to remember if he'd won one in ACW...apparently he stole A.C.H.'s newly-won ACW Heavyweight Title at some point. A.C.H. chased him off after Gerald's win but couldn't get the belt back...apparently that'll be settled at the next ACW show. Tricky to push an angle that'll pay off in another part of the country. :)
Tremendous matchup between A.C.H. and Wyatt...A.C.H. has become a big favorite in the past year. He pulled off a wall-flip move that I had only seen once before(out of Ricochet, I think).
The women's four-way dance seemed a bit rough, sorry to say...and I know they're capable of better than that. Serenity mostly wrestles in central Illinois, though she wrestled MsChif in East Carondelet last week. I joked that she looks like a wrestling version of Ke$ha(which is a compliment coming from me)...but then my first look at Lillie Mae prompted the comment "Mickie James and O.D.B. had a kid". (Just kidding...pleasedon'tkillme.) Serenity got the surprise upset win thanks to Gary's Mom/Mrs. Victor/I-Wish-They'd-Give-An-Official-Name-To-That-Character.
It seemed unusual to book ROH Heavyweight Champion Davey Richards in a tag match where he wasn't really the focus...more attention was paid to the soap-opera between Robert D. Evans, Darin Corbin, and go-between Ax Allwardt. Evans got a big reaction and even a "Christian Values" chant for his speech on morality...bwahahaha. Evans is the epitome of the S. William Regal quote that he has "one of those faces I'd never get tired of punching". Corbin is very entertaining and a favorite of my comedian friend Al Canal and his daughter. Corbin got the win over Kyle O'Reilly thanks to SHENANIGANS~!
Top matches of the evening...and here comes the blood. Fitchett was a mess to the point of invoking the dreaded Muta Scale. The finish and the aftermath seemed to suggest Fitchett "quitting" but I didn't get a chance to ask him about it...hopefully it's just a break for a while. He is scheduled for upcoming ACW shows, at any rate. With a face on top of the mountain, it's a good time to build up heels...
On that note...holy cow, a face won a blowoff match! I was beginning to think that wrestling promotions had forgotten how to book that. I probably would have been harder on Dingo winning the Fitchett feud if Gelistico had retained since it meant the heels winning the top two feuds in the company. As it was, it was a fitting end to Evan's 17-month(!) title reign as he had held the belt since it was still the LWA Championship. Thought it a bit odd to START the match with a DDT(by Walsh) with Raven right there watching. Walsh was bloody by the end of the match as well...parts of the match were tough to follow because of the crowd, but everything worked in the end.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to do a year-in-review sort of column, but in lieu of that...it's been an eventful 2011. Evan Bourne became a WWE Tag Team Champion. "The Future" Donovan Ruddick(now D.T. Porter) signed with WWE and reported to FCW(though he's been on the shelf for most of the year with knee problems). Fitchett branched out to CHIKARA and AAW. Brandon Espinosa has been all over the place, particularly OVW. Ace Hawkins has gained recognition for appearing in the PWI 500 and being nominated for PWI's Rookie Of The Year award...he's currently the IHW Illinois Champion and just won the MMWA Jr. Heavyweight Title as well. Gelistico, Vega, Gary Jay, and Pierre Abernathy made their debuts for NWA Anarchy(though their TV time was severely shortchanged).
SLA made a huge comeback after the LWA struggled to draw in 2010. MMWA and SICW split into separate products despite using a lot of the same wrestlers. Several wrestlers made comebacks(some stuck better than others). Pete Madden re-retired after the last Metro Pro show. IHW continued to put on a solid product. Ditto for MECW who experienced an influx of new talent from the Chicago area. NWA Midwest promotions cut ties with the National Wrestling Alliance to form "Zero-One USA"...now Dynamo Pro is instituting its own championships. ROH returned to television with mixed reviews. On the national scene, it looks like we're ending the year with C.M. Punk and Daniel Bryan holding the top two WWE championships...who'da thunk it? To paraphrase Punk's Twitter, two indy schmucks aren't doing so bad. :-D Add the fact that Bourne's tag title reign has been WAY longer than I would have expected, plus Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose being close to a promotion to the main roster...hey, we'll see what happens.
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