The show was a benefit for a local family; they had lost their home and young child in a fire. It's always cool to see a wrestling promotion help out people in need like that. Shoutout to Brian, Lori, & Lindsay Davis; all the best to you.
Your ring announcer was Greg Jovi...or not, as he cut a heel promo to start the show. He dropped Dan Walsh's name so it's possible that Dan's NOT gone for good. The Hooligans ran him off and Hat Guy(sorry, don't know his name) did the ring announcing for the show.
Your referee was Jason Jennings, notable for the Canadian flag patch on his referee shirt. He had a long night, especially with the fans heckling him on a few occasions.
Davey Richards was initially advertised(though not scheduled for a match); he wasn't there as he wrestled on the EVOLVE show in Florida. Angelus Layne was out due to illness so Alex Castle worked the six-way dance.
Attendance was solid as usual for SLA; they're building a consistent audience for their shows.
Good showing by the debuting Two-Star Heroes; Matt Knicks had appeared previously but Chris Castro was making his SLA debut. The Hooligans talked up their match with the Young Bucks on March 1st; the fans seem to be on the side of Devin & Mason Cutter for that particular bout...
Notably, Brandon Espinosa was a face as far as the Anarchy crowd was concerned. "The Money" Matt Cage(making his first SLA appearance in a while) tried to pay off Espinosa to "go down" and Espy took it COMPLETELY the wrong way...har. Cage clarified himself and Espy took the cash, only to go on the attack anyway...why not? Espinosa did as good of a frog splash as possible with the low ceiling clearance. The fans chanted "Not Matt Cage" as they have surprisingly good memories...
The six-way dance was advertised as all debuts for the promotion(though Castle was a last-minute entrant). Bradley Charles had wrestled for the LWA but not SLA. Had never seen Kenny Sutra or Steve Fierce before. The rules weren't clear(multi-way matches in this promotion tend to be elimination-style unless otherwise stated) so wrestlers initially broke up pin attempts out of habit. Jake Parnell just disappeared from the match in the early going; I asked the ring announcer about it and he said Parnell had been injured. There were rough patches but that can happen in this style of match. Castle was cheered by default as the fans didn't know anyone in the match besides him.
The fans recognized Jeff O'Shea as "Not Matt Cage" from a few shows ago; this brought out Cage himself to shake hands with O'Shea as an impromptu joke. Learned the name of Alexandre Rudolph(Alex The Big Owl)'s finisher from an online interview, so yay.
It had been a long time since I'd seen B-Boy; he used to team with Homicide and they have similar styles. His resume includes CZW, IWA Mid-South, JAPW, PWG, and Wrestling Society X(under a mask as "Delikado"). It was a different sort of A.C.H. match than you'd usually see but not in a bad way. A.C.H. won, Code Of Honor afterwards, and all is good.
Personally, I liked the second half of the show better than the first half as the face/heel alignments were more clearly defined. SLA is weird like that as very few people actively work heel(Matt Cage was the main guy to do so in the first half). Mike Sydal did a lot of yoga stretching to show off his flexibility. Had to resist the urge to yell out "JUST LIKE EVAN BOURNE!" after the finish, but at least I've seen Sydal lately. (Where IS Evan Bourne, anyway? He's not on WWE TV and he hasn't been released. It's not like they don't throw people back on TV with no plans for them; just ask Tyson Kidd.)
The fans were SOLIDLY behind Jojo Bravo against Michael Elgin...it played out well as an underdog/powerhouse battle. Jojo used a lot of sleeperholds to wear down Elgin, but the size difference was too much for him in the end. We had SPORTZMANSHIP~! earlier between A.C.H. and B-Boy and it looked like the same story as Elgin talked up Bravo's toughness after the match. However, Elgin took him out with a huge clothesline after raising his hand. Bwahahaha.
Evan Gelistico didn't have the ACW Heavyweight Title belt with him and he wasn't acknowledged as champion. The SLA Twitter clarified the situation by saying that Gelistico refused to defend his title. The ACW belts are rarely a factor in SLA these days, so I'm not sure about the significance of acknowledging those titles. The mandible claw is an odd choice of finishing hold for Evan. Kyle O'Reilly won and pushed his title match with Gerald James on March 1st, so points for pushing the upcoming show. The Friday half of the double-shot may be overshadowed, but both events should be really good.
Adam Raw vs. Ricky Starks was a last-minute addition to the card; Raw had been out of action with an injury for several months. Late in the match, Raw called out that he was going "OLDSCHOOL~!" and used a bearhug, iron claw, and sleeperhold. Starks responded by hitting the Ultimate Warrior big splash with a near-fall, then Raw came back to win with the big boot and Legdrop O'Doom. Yes, that happened and it was glorious.
The main event was crazy right out of the gate as Vega and Fitchett rushed the ring to brawl with Gerald James and Wyatt. The fans in my part of the building didn't get Wyatt's name since the brawl interrupted the ring introes, so they had trouble heckling him after he bad-mouthed them...heh. Fitchett pinning the champion got lost in the chaos of the aftermath, oddly enough. They had teased the Submission Squad group turning into a faction of LWA originals and Jordan Lacey fits that mold...Jeremy Wyatt wasn't a part of the first core group from that promotion, but he did hold the LWA Title at one point.
That was just part one of the weekend...to be continued in the next commentary.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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