We'll start with St. Louis Anarchy on Friday. They tend to put on a lot of Ring Of Honor-style matches. They encourage fans to cheer or boo people as they see fit (though some people are obviously more heelish than others). Also, the entire promotion is essentially no-disqualification so there's no real penalty for "cheating"(such as it is). It's funny to realize that some matches are billed as "hardcore" or "anything-goes" when technically any match falls into that format. :) As such, Anarchy draws a different audience than other groups in the area...definitely a younger subset of wrestling fans. They've been consistently drawing good crowds...it may help that they don't run every month.
Your ring announcer was Greg Jovi...please forget that he was a heel manager a few months ago. He briefly acknowledged that he never thought he'd be back, but he played it straight for the whole night(even as it pertained to former enemy Mat Fitchett).
Dingo(w/ Hardcore Andy) vs. Jojo Bravo: Bravo was heelish a few months ago when he confronted Dingo, but he's fairly popular with the Anarchy fanbase so this played out as face/face matchup. Andy never seem to stay with one wrestler for too long and sadly his winning streak ended at one on this night. Each guy survived the other's finisher(Dingo Driver II, Samurai Driver) before Jojo pulled off the upset(in my book) with a victory roll.
Evan Gelistico vs. Alex Castle for the ACW Heavyweight Title(?): The only card change was due to Adam Raw's recent injury; Castle answered Gelistico's open challenge, thus changing the previously-scheduled four-way dance into a three-way. It can be tough to hear the promos at these shows, so I wasn't too clear if the ACW Heavyweight Title was on the line. Castle was the face by default, which was odd as I'm used to seeing him in the heel role. As hesitant as I am to agree with The Mad Conservative Crimefighter(tm), this match DID have some rough spots and I've seen better out of both men. Hey, sometimes two people just don't click or it was an off-night for one or the other. I didn't get the joke of the vampire character losing to a CRUCIFIX pin until I read Castle's tweet about the finish...well played.
Arik Cannon vs. Darren Dean: This was essentially face vs. face, though Dean and his regular partner Aaron Solo have worked heel in the past. It seems weird to consider Arik Cannon as just another regular roster member but there you have it. Lot of rollup finishes on this show as Cannon won with a forward-roll cradle.
Hey, Young Bucks, sweet. My personal preference was to see them against a more local tag team and they will be facing the Hooligans at the March 1st show.
Darin Corbin vs. Brandon Espinosa(w/ Angelus Layne): For a change of pace, this was heel vs. heel...though each guy has his share of fans in the Anarchy crowd. I would lean toward Corbin as the crowd favorite. I had a feeling this clash of personalities would produce an entertaining bout...Espinosa turns the effeminate schtick up to eleven at Anarchy. Corbin was aghast at Espinosa's immorality...as he's CLEARLY hooking up with Layne out of wedlock, see. Where should I begin? Espinosa slapped Corbin on the butt and Corbin thought Layne did it. Espy kissed Darin, leading to Angelus kissing the referee. Later, Angelus kissed a female fan at ringside...got all that? The absurdity reached its peak when a near-collision resulted in Corbin accidentally groping Layne's chest; he left his hands there for...a...really...long...time before Espinosa broke things up. In the end, Corbin speared Layne off the apron by mistake and Espy delved into his Latino heritage with El Cheapo De Rollup(complete with a pull of the tights). Hey, another upset in my mind(since Corbin was the champion at the previous show).
Johnny Gargano vs. Kyle O'Reilly: They are finally acknowledging O'Reilly's Medallion win(from September of 2012) as he's getting his title shot at the March 1st show. This was essentially face/face though O'Reilly was slightly heelish at times. With the context of Kyle's upcoming title shot, it made sense for him to win here...in the bigger picture, who would be the favorite: The Dragon Gate USA Open The Freedom Gate Champion or one-half of the current ROH Tag Team Champions? I'd give a slight edge to Gargano in that regard though ROH is a bit more visible to the average fan. Kyle won with a version of the Hell's Gate submission hold.
Davey Richards vs. Jeremy Wyatt: Davey's a polarizing figure to say the least. His ROH stint ended in controversy and he's competing on NXT in the near future alongside regular tag partner Eddie Edwards. He is scheduled for Anarchy's January show, at any rate. He's on the list of people who I wouldn't have expected to get a look from WWE...but it seems like more of those people are getting shots these days, so good for him. Wyatt's a definite heel but this played out as your standard workrate-y bout...I wasn't sure if these two had faced each other before, but a quick Internet search showed that they had(albeit several years ago). The grapevine anklelock finish seemed to come out of nowhere.
Dan Walsh's promo was interesting...he felt like he was overlooked by the promotion after being champion for a year, saying he was usually the first to be cut from the shows due to lineup changes. He also said that he tried to be a unique personality instead of the standard bang-bang workrate-y type, whether that meant the people loved him or hated him. I don't know if this will turn into a storyline where he'll return down the line, but he'll be missed around Anarchy.
A.C.H. vs. Davey Vega: This series was put together as a result of T.J. Perkins(Manik) signing with TNA, thus pre-empting the plans for A.C.H. to battle Perkins in a best-of-three-falls match. Both are faces(and they even teamed up earlier in the year) but tension developed between the two over the course of the series. A.C.H. won the first match, though it's worth noting that Vega had competed against K.C. Karrington earlier in that evening. Vega won match two, resulting in an uncharacteristic display of frustration on A.C.H.'s part. Despite past events, this played out as a sportsmanlike contest...A.C.H.'s birthday was the following day and the fans acknowledged that. Fine bout; Vega won with the Sharpshooter and they made nice afterwards.
Bolt Brady vs. Ricky Starks vs. Arya Daivari: Almost forgot about this one. We had Brady as the face, Daivari as the heel, and Starks...somewhere in the middle. All multi-way matches in Anarchy seem to be elimination-style unless otherwise stated, for reference. We did get an attempt at the Flying Carpet Ride from Daivari but Brady got his knees up. Bolt eliminated Daivari with the backcracker but Starks took out Brady for the win after Angel's Wings.
The Hooligans vs. Alex The Big Owl & Jordan Lacey(w/ Jacob Dangle): This was a rematch from the previous show where the two had a really strong matchup. I'm always surprised at some of the moves the Hooligans pulls out...Mason did a one-man Spanish Fly on the Big Owl at one point! Later, Alex pulled off a top-rope Frankensteiner...guess it's an owl thing? The finish of their previous bout(Hooligans powerbombed Lacey off the turnbuckles on Alex) didn't end it this time; it took a flying second-rope Stunner from Mason followed by a LARIATOOOOO from Devin to finish off Alex. As a side note, Jordan Lacey has lost a LOT of weight in recent years...good for him.
Gerald James vs. Mat Fitchett, best-of-three-falls for the Heavyweight Title: The main event was set up as James granting a title opportunity to an up-and-coming talent...the same sort of opportunity that Adam Raw once gave to him at a previous Yuletide Terror event. In the historical piece on the event that I wrote for Missouri Wrestling Revival, I noted that the title has almost always changed hands at the December show. On top of that, it was set up that all St. Lous Anarchy Heavyweight Title matches would be best-of-three-falls...this stemmed from Gerald losing to Davey Richards earlier in the year after a knockout kick. Gerald didn't want the title to change hands on a "fluke pin", we were told.
In a nice nod to the stipulation setup, Fitchett got a flash pin off a victory roll mere minutes into the match. Things heated up from there though it remained face-vs.-face...Gerald evened things up with his Michinoku Driver finisher. Fitchett hit the off-the-apron-through-a-table piledriver that beat Evan Gelistico at a previous show, but he didn't get Gerald back in the ring fast enough and Gerald barely escaped the pin attempt. Several roster members(including Gerald's "father" Dorian Victor) came out to cheer on the participants...but that's when things broke down in Alton. I saw Wyatt grab Fitchett's foot, but I didn't see how Gerald got the chair(initially suspecting that Dorian had passed it in). After the two had battled without shenanigans up to that point, Gerald proved that he was a bad guy all along when he resorted to bashing Fitchett for the chair to retain his title.
A lot has already been set up for 2014. The benefit show on January 10th has Davey, Michael Elgin, and west-coast standout B-Boy on the lineup. The February 28th/March 1st double-shot has the Young Bucks on both shows as well as the Gerald James-Kyle O'Reilly title match on night two.
At any rate, that was just part one of this weekend...more in the next commentary.
As always: #yaywrestling
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