I'll just leave this link here:
http://missouriwrestlingrevival.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/mwr-person-of-the-month-patrick-brandmeyer/
Appreciate the acknowledgement from MWR...Brian Kelley and Dubray Tallman do a lot of great work for the website and travel WAY more than I ever did. They go as far west as Kansas City for Metro Pro, as far east as Springfield IL for New Midwest, and as far north as Des Moines, IA for 3XW.
The props should go to the people on the local wrestling scene...they put on a product that deserves more attention that it tends to get. A lot of the big work is done by the people behind the scenes and they deserve a lot of credit as well. I'll try to list some names though I'm sure I'll miss a few: Pierre Abernathy at St. Louis Anarchy, Evil Jim and Crystal at Dynamo, Herb Simmons and Larry Matysik at SICW, Tony Casta and Tim Miller at MMWA, Charles Wilcox at CSCW(don't think I've officially met him yet), "Mr. K" Dereck Krebs at MECW, and Mike Gordon at FIST Combat.
I mentioned the referees in one of my Special Comments last week and they're another understated part of the wrestling product. Jim Harris had his final shows with both MMWA and SICW this month after many years of officiating...he had the distinction of refereeing Randy Orton's pro debut at South Broadway. Other men in stripes include Jay King, Eric Davis, Luke Roberts, and Michael Crase(KNEW I forgot a name last week).
Though the podcast is on a slight hiatus, I'll throw in a mention for Ringsyders as well. It was started by Mike Gordon on Party Animal Radio and eventually became the podcast of the MWR website with co-hosts Ben Simon and Drew Abbenhaus manning the show. Hope to hear them back on the internets in the near future.
My whiny blog archives go back to 2004 on Livejournal if you want to step into the wayback machine. You can also punch the URL of my old photo page into archive.org if you want to see some of my previous photography: http://www.tnaw.com/
Anywho, I've got one more show to cover before I call it a year for 2013...so let's get to it.
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Your ring announcer was Ben Simon and he handed it over to promoter Herb Simmons to start the show. Herb acknowledged Jim Harris' retirement and presented him with an award for his years of service. Even Herb was joking about how wrestling retirements don't tend to stick...Jim officiated a few matches on his (real) last night in the stripes.
I noticed that SICW was using a different ring than usual. They had been using Dynamo's ring for a while after MMWA stopped letting them use their ring, so I guess they finally got their own ring to use.
There were a few card changes due to a combination of injuries and travel issues. Absent from the released lineup: Bull Bronson, Heath Hatton, and Tony Raze. The original lineup had Bronson vs. Ricky Cruz, Raze vs. Big Jim Hoffarth, Hatton teaming with Chaz Wesson and Bobby D against Alexandre Rudolph/Ax Allwardt/Joker, and Dave Vaughn vs. Daniel Eads. As a result: Hoffarth faced Max Archer. Eads took Hatton's spot in the six-man tag and Jake Parnell faced Vaughn. The debuting Frank Wyatt took Rudolph's spot in the six-man as Rudolph answered Ricky's open challenge later in the night.
Jake Parnell vs. Dave Vaughn(w/ Travis Cook): Cook passed on his usual intro as he was upset about being stuck in the opener...he placed the blame squarely on Vaughn for "not getting the job done" against Jake Dirden at the November show. Uh-oh, trouble in paradise? Good competitive matchup...Parnell seems to only be using the "Gentleman" gimmick when he works heel. Vaughn won with the spear, then added a double-underhook DDT after the bell. Cook wanted a post-match high-five but Vaughn walked away from him...hmm.
Big Jim Hoffarth(w/ Waco) vs. Max Archer: It's turned into a monthly mantra at SICW: Poor Max Archer. He's been MMWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion and FTW No Limits Champion; he's also lost a feud with ring announcer Jeff Vernetti. Hoffarth won in fairly short order...he motioned to help Archer up from the mat, then the tension between the Guerrilla Warfare teammates finally came to a head as Waco snapped on Hoffarth. Hoffarth shrugged off the assault and Waco retreated from the ring...but not for long as he was in the next match.
Gary Jackson vs. Waco: This was set up as Waco trying to avenge the loss of his partner's mask. Waco played hide-the-chain for a little while and got in a few cheapshots. The ending was a bit abrupt as Waco took one last swing with the chain and got backdropped...at which point the referee saw the weapon and called for the bell. It's not often that Gary doesn't get to enlighten us on THE RULES~!
Herb interviewed Hillbilly Jim...he's a big guy and looks different without the overalls and hat. It's a cliche in wrestling but it's true: You don't always grasp the size of the bigger wrestlers unless you see them in person. I wasn't aware of a lot of his non-WWF career(he used to compete as biker "Harley Davidson"). He appeared at WrestleMania III in an infamous six-man tag match with King Kong Bundy and four midgets; he was also on the Mega Powers' team at the 1988 Survivor Series. Most of his in-ring career was before my regular viewing time, but I saw him as the manager of Henry & Phineas Godwinn in the mid-'90s. I wasn't aware that he had a show on Sirius Satellite Radio: "Moonshine Matinee".
The first intermission went fairly long as Jim was signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans; Santa Claus also made an appearance to give out candy to the kids. Santa must be booked solid at wrestling shows in December...heh.
Chaz Wesson, Daniel Eads, & Bobby D vs. Ax Allwardt, Frank Wyatt, & Joker: It says something when Ax is the "small" guy on his team. This was fine for what it was...honestly don't remember much about it.
Commissioner Keith Smith did an interview with Jordynne Grace...it's been a while since SICW has had women's wrestling and we don't see it often enough at any promotion in this area. The fans didn't really know who Jordynne was...to be fair, she IS fairly new. She got started in Texas before moving to the St. Louis area along with some other guys from the ACW crew. It's always good to see Lucy Mendez(Jordynne's scheduled opponent for January). Had a minor wish list for the near year and "more women's wrestling" was one of the items...so yay.
Ron Powers vs. Flash Flanagan: At first, it looked like the referee was going to let these guys fight it out. However, things got out of hand when Jim Harris was knocked out of the ring...then Jay King entered the ropes only to get booted down by Powers. This feud...MUST CONTINUE~! They teased either a special ref or a cage for the rematch in January...it's been a while, but SICW has done cage matches in the past. Wonder if that's a possibility in the near future...
Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook & Dave Vaughn) vs. Jake Dirden for the Classic Title: Dirden's been pushed strong since returning from Japan...he won the second FIST Combat tournament, captured the Dynamo Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title from Dan Walsh, and has been on a winning streak in SICW. There's a lot of Bruiser/King Kong Brody influence around these parts with former Brody protege Powers, Dirden, and Alexandre Rudolph around. It looked like they were going into the endgame early, but then Dirden accidentally punched the ringpost and Kasa targeted the arm and hand. Dirden nearly realized the dream of DOUBLE GOLD~! but it was not to be...really liked the finish with Kasa turning the Asiatic Spike into a pin combo for the win.
Ricky Cruz vs. Alexandre Rudolph: These two have fought a few times before...I imagine the Bronson match will simply be pushed back to January, but who knows. This was fairly quick compared to the other feature bouts but it was a good matchup. At one point Ricky hit Rudolph with a spinebuster, then told referee Jim Harris to make the cover while he made a three-count...heh. Of course, the match continued from there...Rudolph was bloodied from the finishing superkick into the chair.
January is already looking busy:
Saturday 1/4: DPW in Fenton, MO(Stratford Inn)
Friday 1/10: SLA in Alton, IL
Saturday 1/11: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
Saturday 1/18: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
On top of that, CSCW makes its Missouri debut on Saturday 1/11 in St. Robert.
Have a great holiday season...and as always: #yaywrestling
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