The first indy wrestling show of 2014 didn't happen under the best of circumstances. The first weekend after the holidays can be rough...secondly, the weather forecast essentially said that Jack Frost had hooked up with Mother Nature and we'd be getting hit with 6-18 inches of afterbirth. On top of that, there was a comedy show with Jimmie "J.J." Walker on the same night...in the SAME BUILDING.
As it turned out, the Tsnownami didn't hit until long after the show had ended...but the attendance was low on this night thanks to the winter weather alerts. The fans in attendance had good energy, at any rate.
Belleville officially clocked in at fourteen inches of snow and it was negative-eight degrees when I got up for work on Monday morning. In short: Good times.
Absences from the lineup/talent roster: Outtkast(specifically stated to be a Missouri licensing issue), Bradley Charles, Geek Singh, Alexandre Rudolph(wrestled in Texas), Jake Parnell. Your ring announcers were Ben Simon & Chris Roedel.
Not the best omen: The middle rope popped loose during the introductions for the opener. The ring crew did a quick fix as they moved the bottom rope to the middle; they brought out a fixed/substitute bottom rope after that match was over. The Black Hand Warriors did an impromptu heel promo to bash Fenton and the Cardinals while the crew did their work.
The show started a bit after 7:00 and was over shortly after 9...I imagine they wanted to wrap up quickly so everyone could get home before the Snowmageddon hit. To that end, it was a fairly short show with only five matches on the card.
At the previous WLW show, Dark Shadows had unmasked to reveal himself as David DeLorean. DeLorean had been an active wrestler under that name as well, but he had been a face prior to the reveal. The opener was good though part of the finishing sequence was a bit rough...you could chalk it up to the tag team inexperience of Shorty Biggs & Evan Money, so there you go.
Dynamo's had a few gaps between shows in the past(apparently due to the venue availability of the Sports Academy)...now that they're running more consistently, authority figure Mark Bland is concerned about title defense frequency. We were informed that the Dynamo Tag Titles will be defended in February whether Outtkast is available or not. It seems like the Black Hand Warriors have a good case for a title shot, but the High Level Enterprise team(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb) has contended with both the Warriors and the Bumrush Brothers in the past year. Add in the Travis Cook Organization and The First United Church Of Karrington, among others...the tag division is getting busy.
Brandon Gallagher's moving up in the world...he got a decisive win over Ace Hawkins and now seems poised to feud with Dan Walsh. He is NOT a Smurf, I am told, nor is he Katy Perry.
Good to see Jack Gamble back at Dynamo...he returned to action at WLW in December. He and his family were in a bad car accident several months ago after an MMWA show and it's good to hear that they're all doing well now. One of my friends said Jon Webb resembles Shane Helms in his look...I can kinda see it. I'd call it an upset win over the well-traveled and more experienced Brandon Espinosa...Gamble stopped Espy from cheating and I could see that singles match happening down the line.
Dan Walsh DIDN'T use "99 Problems" for his entrance theme and it threw me off a bit. You never quite know if Kevin X will be a face or a heel, it would seem. Gallagher's interference came out of nowhere but it sets up a new feud, so I'm cool with that.
I sometimes wonder if Dynamo should revive the light heavyweight division...they have enough wrestlers in that weight class and it would give some lower-card guys something to do. Just a random thought.
The main event was...odd in a sense. Elvis Aliaga seemed to come out as a heel and the fans were ready to cheer for Jake Dirden as the champion of the home promotion. Dirden came out and acted heelish as well, so the fans weren't quite sure who to cheer. As the match progressed, Aliaga established himself as the face for the night...he put up a strong fight but Dirden got the win. Elvis never tapped or submitted but passed out from the Asiatic Spike. With WLW moving to Troy, Missouri, we'll probably be seeing more of their crew in the near future...don't know if this will be a full-fledged working relationship with
Dynamo, but we'll see.
Dynamo is running at Off Broadway again in February...Tuesday night is an awkward time of the week for a wrestling show, but it worked out surprisingly well the last time.
The rest of my January looks like this:
Friday 1/10: SLA in Alton, IL
Saturday 1/11: MMWA in St. Louis, MO (NWA:CSCW runs in St. Robert, MO that night.)
Saturday 1/18: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
As always: #yaywrestling
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