Fine show in East Carondelet this past weekend...not QUITE as crowded as recent events there, but that was fine with me since there was a bit more breathing room. :)
It's a side note for a wrestling commentary, but they did have a moment of silence at the show for the passing of Stan Musial. I was a hardcore baseball Cardinals fan before I became a hardcore wrestling fan, so I know the story of Stan The Man very well. Anyone from this area knows the reverence St. Louisans have towards baseball in general and Musial in particular...he was 92 years old so he lived a full life.
Odd to see a heel-vs.-heel match as the opener. Gallagher's still working the kinks out of his aerial arsenal. Random that Archer ended with a Rude Awakening instead of his usual Michinoku Driver.
Waco has really slimmed down...he always seems to pull out moves you wouldn't expect out of him. He actually went for a Harlem Hangover(somersault legdrop off the top) against Shorty...too bad Shorty moved out of the way.
Wait, two Gary Jackson-Big Texan matches in a row with decisive finishes? GET RIGHT OUT OF TOWN~! On a semi-related note, a friend did a Google search on Gary and found a WCW Main Event match from December 1992 where Gary wrestled Rick Rude...interesting viewing.
King Kong "Bruiser" Brody was a big deal around the St. Louis area...SICW seems to have no less than THREE Brody-inspired people on the roster: Ron Powers(direct protege), Jake Dirden, and Alexandre Rudolph. Only fitting that two of them would team up...much to the chagrin of Jimmy D(ouglas) and Brent Myers. Dirden's moving up in the world in a short period of time...good for him.
Related to the Gary Jackson Google search, I looked up Powers' brief time in WCW...a couple of losses on Nitro to Lex Luger and The Giant(Big Show for you newbie fans) and a win on WCW Saturday Night over Bunkhouse Buck. Can't seem to find the WCWSN match though I'd seen it before...the Nitro matches are easily YouTubed, though.
Odd to see Kevin X playing it straight as a face, but he's always a great asset to any wrestling company. He went the submission route in his match, working the arm to set up his finishing hold, "The Projects". Hadn't seen Purple Passion in a while...yay?
Chaz avenged his loss to Vaughn from last month after some miscommunication with Travis Cook...Wesson is one of those guys who's always been a solid guy in the ring but just never branched out from this area.
Good brawl between Hargas and Rudolph. The matches on this show seemed to get the right amount of time for the most part...I contrast that with last week's MMWA show where a few matches got more time than necessary.
On that note, I will concede that last week's Brandon Espinosa vs. A.J. Williams match was a "spotfest" to some extent and I was bothered a bit by the finisher spam near the end. About the only finisher not used(and kicked out of) was A.J.'s 450 Splash...and it might be a bit early for him to be busting that out so soon after returning to the ring. Didn't say it wasn't a fun and entertaining match to watch, of course.
Devaluing finishers has become a major pet peeve of mine lately...though I know it's not as big a deal on the independent scene. Lance Storm once said that he didn't have one set finisher before his time in the Big Two since there was no mainstream television to establish a big move with the audience. A finisher can be the ace-in-the-hole for a midcard guy...he may be up against a tough opponent, but he always has a chance if he can hit his move.
That digression has a point because of the main event at SICW this past weekend...in a match full of old-school overbooking, it seemed out of place for Ken Kasa to kick out of Ricky Cruz's swinging fisherman buster. Other than that, the move psychology was fine...Cruz went out of his way to avoid Kasa's John Wu Dropkick since it beat him in December.
Travis Cook's mindset is that Cruz felt he couldn't beat Kasa on that night(especially since Kasa survived his finisher) so he "got himself disqualified to save his title". On that note, Travis is protesting that Kasa should be the champion under those circumstances...even though the match was contested under normal championship match rules. I would imagine they're setting up a rematch where the title CAN change hands on a DQ...but Gary Jackson is already lined up for the next shot.
In other news, ACW switched a bunch of their belts in Austin, TX this past Sunday. Bolt Brady beat Carson for the U-30 Title, Jessica James beat Barbi Hayden for the Joshi Title, Athena beat Shawn Vexx for the T.V. Title, and Evan Gelistico beat Rachel Summerlyn for the Heavyweight Title. I'm reading that A.C.H. may be doing more ROH shows in the near future...coolness.
Pro Wrestling Collision had their debut show on Saturday...though it was without AAPW/PWC Heavyweight Champion Edmund "Livewire" McGuire. McGuire surrendered his position as the incoming champion, so the Future Of Collision Tournament was used to crown an inaugural champion instead; Heath Hatton defeated Brandon Espinosa, Alex Castle, and Christian Rose to win the belt.
I got my February schedule mixed up a bit since MMWA and SICW are running a bit differently. Usually MMWA at South Broadway is on the second Saturday of the month and SICW on the third Saturday, but they're reversed for this February. Thus, my upcoming schedule looks like:
1/26: MECW
2/1: SLA
2/9: MECW
2/16: MMWA
2/23: SICW
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