SLA Special Comment

Decent turnout for the show...one of these days I'll learn to do a reasonably accurate headcount.

I do my best to keep tabs on the ACW championship situations...their belts aren't usually acknowledged in SLA unless they're actually on the line. I THINK Jojo Bravo is a Tag Champ with Jordan Jensen(Mojo Bravado) but don't hold me to that...he didn't have a belt with him and wasn't announced as a tag champ. A.C.H. dropped the ACW Heavyweight Title to Jaykus Plisken a while back. The other current titleholders are Davey Vega(defended the T.V. Title against Jojo), Carson(U-30 Champ), Matthew Palmer(Hardcore Champ), and Barbi Hayden(Joshi Champ).

Given ACW's stance that the women compete on equal terms with the men, I wonder if a male heel ever challenged for the Joshi Title on the grounds of equal opportunity...bwahahaha.

Jensen wasn't at the show, prompting the only change to the announced lineup as he and Jojo were scheduled to be in the tag team four-way dance. They were replaced by Darren Dean & Thomas Shire(who worked twice as he also wrestled in the preshow tag match).

Wasn't that familiar with anyone in the opener besides Tony Kozina...had seen Aaron Solo once before and had never seen Shire or King Fale. Fale has competed for New Japan Pro Wrestling, we were told. There wasn't much indication of the face/heel alignment of the matchup except for some attempted crowd-rallying by Solo/Shire and a few choking spots by Kozina.

Jojo Bravo's got talent though he's not the biggest competitor in the world. His nickname is "The Ill Samurai", prompting me to make remarks like "Samurais don't do back rakes!" The match with Vega started out as face-vs.-face but Jojo went a bit heelish over the course of the matchup.

Brackets were available at the front door for predictions...while I tend to suck at predictions(and thus don't usually make them), I filled out a bracket. I got almost all of my first-round picks right and even picked one of the final two(A.C.H.), so not bad for an amateur effort.

The sliding scale of expectations goes into effect for SLA as you rarely see a truly BAD match at one of their shows. However, crowd heat can be a tricky matter as they(and ACW) operate on the stated mindset of "cheer and boo who you want"(even though some wrestlers clearly work heel).

My one incorrect prediction was in the first tournament match between Billy McNeil and Jeremy Wyatt. I honestly couldn't recall the last time I'd seen Billy win a match, amazingly. Looked like Billy was going for some variation of Sliced Bread #2 but couldn't quite pull it off, leading to a reversal sequence and a rollup pin.

O'Reilly-Rose was kinda-sorta face-vs.-face, I guess.

Arik Cannon's worked heel in the past but tends to get cheered more often than not in SLA, so it was nice to actually see him in the face role against a definite heel in Evan Gelistico. Evan's scored some significant wins over nationally-known wrestlers in the past few years, most of them by tapout.

Nice of them to keep Fitchett visible while he recovers from his injury...he put Greg Jovi through a drinking game, then put him in a post-intermission match with an inflatable leprechaun that saw Jovi lose after passing out(with Davey Vega putting the balloon on top for the pin). Somewhere, Sam Bacardi sheds a tear.

No Dorian Victor on this night..."Mrs. Victor" was in Gerald James' corner for his first-round match but wasn't at ringside for the six-way dance finale.

Not much crowd heat for Richards-Brady...probably because there wasn't much doubt about the outcome.

Don't see Hollister nearly enough around these parts...good guy.

Bad night for Vega in terms of miscommunication as he accidentally kicked Childs in the four-way tag dance(leading to his team's elimination) and then accidentally got Richards eliminated in the main event.

Okay, so when Gary Jay(Gerald James) started in the LWA, trainer Jacob Dangle turned him into "Gary The Barnowl"(a gimmick he still occasionally uses). Now Dangle has turned Alexandre Rudolph into "Alex The Big Owl" who is doing the same schtick...but with a much bigger wrestler. Hilarity ensues! He even participated in the dive sequence late in the match which included an Asai moonsault by one of the Hooligans and Jordan Lacey's FAT GUY OUT OF CONTROL suicide dive. I had heard rumblings about SLA getting their own Tag Team Titles...they're building up a decent division.

I don't know if Walsh vs. Corbin was the best technical match of the night but it was one of the most entertaining matches of the night...bwahahaha. Corbin's seems to be disingenuous in his "morality" but the fans still like him. Really weird to see a non-finish to any SLA match(as they pride themselves on a lack of DQ finishes) but I'm fine with this series continuing.

Tremendous action in the main event...I had picked A.C.H. and Davey as the final two with A.C.H. winning. My only guess was that A.C.H. was more of a "regular" than Kyle so I was figuring on him winning...but hey, Kyle works too. A.C.H. is moving up in the wrestling world as he worked the last ROH iPPV and made a good impression at CHIKARA...outstanding.

October looks very busy with Dynamo, SLA(matinee), MMWA(may pass on that one for a family outing), SICW, and also the TNA house show at Chaifetz Arena. Don't know much about that show since it'll be after Bound For Glory, but they did announce a Gut Check for that show...let the speculation commence.