MMWA Special Comment

Disclaimer: The following commentary contains constructive criticism. Reader discretion is advised.

Broadway had some downtime as far as attendance numbers went but they seem to be back up to speed these days. The crowd energy was pretty good for most of the night as well.

The show went about three hours...since it was the Christmas In July event, they did a lot of raffle drawings throughout the night.

Only three matches were announced ahead of time. The Jr. Heavyweight Title match was set up as A.J. Williams defending against Andrew Wilder but it became a triple threat match with J-Mal Swagg included.

Got to shake Dr. Tom Pritchard's hand before the show...wasn't aware of how long he'd been wrestling until I saw a very young Pritchard on one of the SICW TV show's classic clips. It sounds like he had some headaches with the Missouri State Athletic Commission...it would have sucked if they had been burned again like they were with Rhino a few years ago.

When a special guest is in the house(especially one who scouts talent), a promotion should put its best foot forward with regards to the in-ring content; to be frank, this show may not have been a good example of that.

Espinosa and Raphael King had matches at other shows in the area recently...they had a fine opener though there were a few rough patches. Commissioner Tim Miller played the Theodore Long role: Holla holla tag match, playa!

The triple threat match seemd to be ten minutes of spots in a five-minute bag. There was a Tower Of Doom spot at about the one-minute mark! I don't know if it was A.J.'s first three-way match but I'm almost positive it was the first three-way bout for both of the rookies. Nothing against Swagg at all, but the originally-scheduled singles bout may have produced a better overall matchup. Learn from the experience and put it toward the next outing, you know? Different matches have different "flows" to them, even things as seemingly "mundane" as tag matches or (nowadays) triple threats.

It was my first look at Dark Shadows(WLW wrestler) and he worked with two other Harley proteges in the form of Jack Gamble & Jon Webb. Freddie Fury seems to be popular at South Broadway but he was on the heel team for this night. Wasn't sure if we'd see Gamble's Canadian Destroyer but he did pull it off on Shadows. Solid bout.

I found out on Sunday that Gamble and his family got into a major car wreck on the way home as they were hit by a drunk driver...yikes. Their kid is reportedly okay and so is the worker that rode with them, but Gamble and his wife were pretty messed up. It's easy to forget how much traveling these guys do and crazy things can happen on the road. I can't say that I know Gamble that well since he doesn't live in the area, but all the best to him and his wife in their recovery.

Moondog Rover-Jackson Whitechapel got WAY too much time(around ten minutes). Rover is essentially all schtick so an opponent's best option is to play along...it looked like Whitechapel tried to play it straight and the bout dragged at times.

Espinosa/Hawkins vs. Osborne/King was good from what I saw. The heels were obviously not on the same page since King didn't appreciate Osborne busting up his title shot earlier in the night...that led to a fight after the bout was over.

The T.V. Title match was fine for what it was. I feel like Brian James deserves better on some level. The story seemed bass-ackwards as Phil E. Blunt interfered in the no-DQ match where James won the title, then Jimmy D won it back in fairly clean fashion(didn't see if tights or ropes were involved in the fall).

Wasn't sure what to expect out of Dr. Tom's in-ring contribution, but he worked more of the tag match than I expected. Fine main event with the backstory of Mephisto calling out Gary Jackson in recent months. Not sure where Blunt fits into this picture, especially since his last appearance was as a face. He seemed like an odd choice for the Pritchard match since he hasn't been a regular for Broadway in a long time.

Anywho...that covers the weekend. SICW is in East Carondelet on the 20th with MIDGET MADNESS~ FIST Combat returns to Pop's in Sauget on Friday the 26th.

As always: #yaywrestling