It was a packed house at the SBAC...the winter storm was a thing of the past as the snow had mostly melted and the temperatures were in the 40s. I imagine a lot of people were happy to get out of the house and do something for the weekend.
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon, your referees were Nick Ridenour(another ref name I forgot in previous comments!) and Jay King.
It's turning into a monthly tradition for Brandon Espinosa and Lynn Mephisto to start the show with a promo segment...along with the complaints about their respective title losses in December, they made fun of Jim Harris for being relegated to a seat in the audience. However...may I have your attention please, Ben Simon has just received a text message from the currently-anonymous MMWA Commissioner! Glad they didn't draw THAT out any longer than necessary...heh. The statement boiled down to "Quit holding up the show and get ready for your matches. Oh yeah, you're in the battle royal."
The big man who made his debut appearance in December made his in-ring debut...he was billed at around 350 lbs. but looks even bigger. Da'Marius Jones had a rough night, though he did get in SOME token offense. Barackus dropped him with a unique finisher(clawhold into a Sister Abigail-esque Flatliner) and the referee stopped the match on a knockout. This guy looks at his hand a lot...
The battle royal had only six participants; Espinosa and Mephisto were former Battle Royal Champions so Mephisto have a chance to regain the title he lost in December. The feud between Jr. Heavyweight Champion Andrew Wilder and Ace Hawkins continued as Hawkins eliminated Wilder, but Ace was dropped to the floor by Webmaster Stevie K shortly after that. Stevie was left alone with Espinosa and Mephisto, but a series of backfired double-teams led to the Webmaster eliminating Mephisto and Espy to retain his title. No Gary Jackson distraction this time around, thus no excuses for Mephisto. Stevie also earned a shot at Jimmy D's T.V. Title later in the night...double gold?
I can honestly say that was the best Moondog Rover-Jackson Whitechapel match of their recent series. MMWA had posted online that commentator(and recent Whitechapel associate) Sean Orleans had been suspended for a month due to a backstage "incident". Wonder if that will be the storyline explanation for Whitechapel's loss...he has lost some weight since the first time I saw him, but I think the "big man" status has officially been taken by Barackus now.
The tag match started with an immediate brawl so the ring introductions didn't take place...this ended up being important afterwards, notably. Wilder took the cheap way out of the match with a low blow for the DQ...which makes more sense if he's defending his title but not so much in a tag match. The anonymous commissioner had set it up so that the Wilder-Hawkins stipulation for February would be set by the winning team...so Wilder's move backfired on him. On a side note, Freddie Fury was an odd choice for Wilder's tag partner...they could use more heel junior heavyweights, I suspect.
Jimmy D has foregone the Red Sox jersey in favor of a Red Sox decal on the title belt itself...well played. Random finish to the match since D has a different opponent on the February show, but it set up a statement from the Commish later in the show(warning him to not pull that trick to retain his title again).
Dave Osborne was the face against Espinosa in December and he worked as a face against A.J. Williams here. South Broadway is notable for having separate face and heel entranceways on opposite sides of the building(though Gary Jackson still insists on using the heel door despite having been a solid face for a while :)). These guys seem to work well together; good underdog/powerhouse dynamic along the lines of Jojo-Elgin at SLA. Barackus screwed over Osborne once again as his presence distracted Osborne long enough for A.J. to hit the superkick for the win...then Barackus took him out with his finisher afterwards.
The main event was barely contained by the ring and that spillled over into the double countout finish. Barackus was officially revealed to be aligned with Espy and Mephisto; he attacked Espy at the December show, thus getting Osborne DQed and allowing Espy to retain the Heavyweight Title at the time.
They had hinted pretty heavily in December that Jim Harris would be the new Commissioner; Tim Miller stepped down from that post for unknown reasons. It's nice when foreshadowing actually pays off as opposed to a wrestling company swerving for the sake of TEH SWERVEZ~! Announcements: Barackus suspended for a month, Brian James vs. Brandon Espinosa next month, "something special" planned for Mephisto, and the aforementioned(in this commentary) warning to Jimmy D.
NWA Central States Championship Wrestling made its Missouri debut on Saturday in St. Robert. It looks like they drew a decent number of fans, so that's good for them. I don't know if Missouri licensing was any sort of issue, but a few names on the announced lineup didn't compete: Shane Fury, Chris Logan, Mitch Johnson, Marcello Spade, and Justa Mazing. The show had five matches with the main event turning into an impromptu tag bout. I keep up on their shows via NWA Affliction on YouTube when I don't get to an event.
At any rate, it was a fun doubleheader weekend. Shoutouts to some of those who tolerated my presence at the shows: Brian Kelley from Missouri Wrestling Revival, Drew Abbenhaus, Gary Weiss, Bill Adams, Luke Roberts, Chris Roedel. Officially met Geek Singh for the first time on Friday; had seen him a few times at Dynamo shows before that. There were plenty more and I have trouble keeping names and faces straight, so forgive me on that note...
Upcoming shows:
-Friday 1/17: WWE at Scottrade Center in St. Louis; also Wrestling Invades Alton(IL)
-Saturday 1/18: SICW in East Carondelet
-Saturday 2/1: Dynamo in Fenton(Stratford Inn)
-Saturday 2/8: MMWA in St. Louis
-Saturday 2/15: SICW in East Carondelet
-Tuesday 2/18: Dynamo in St. Louis(Off Broadway)
-Friday 2/28: SLA in Alton, IL
-Saturday 3/1: SLA in Alton, IL
As always: Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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