Dynamo Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Stratford Inn in Fenton, Missouri.

The weather forecast was looking rough again, though not nearly to the extent of the first weekend of January. Thankfully, the show still had a REALLY good fan turnout and it looks like Dynamo has already built a good audience for a relatively new venue.

Ran into Magic Man on the way into the building and had a good time talking with both him and "The Human Wrecking Ball" Pete Madden. I could listen to war stories from those two all night. Also crossed paths with D'Mon G, who I hadn't seen in a very long time. Drew Abbenhaus stopped by the show for a short time; I also ran into former WGNU talk show host Dan Byington in what was probably his first indy show experience.

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Michael Crase, Jay King, and Jason Jennings.

Andrew "The Wolf" Wilder vs. Jeremy Wyatt: Saw Wilder's name added to the talent list this past week; this was my first time seeing him as a face and also my first time seeing him at a promotion other than MMWA. I'm sure this was quite the learning experience for Wilder as he had a few welts on his body by the end of it. He's still fairly new(first saw him about a year ago at South Broadway) and he's just starting to branch out from his home base. If you want to "go anywhere" in the wrestling business and better yourself, you have to get out of your proverbial comfort zone: Different opponents, different promotions, and different audiences. Glad to see Wyatt on a regular basis again; he hadn't appeared much around here in recent years, but he's been on St. Louis Anarchy shows recently and now he's back at Dynamo. The standing Sicilian crab finisher looked really good. It was unusual for him to be "curtain-jerking" but I figured he'd have a major role in the Dynamo Rumble...that turned out to be an understatement.

"American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph vs. Geek Singh: Rudolph seems to be face in Dynamo but he's been all over the map in recent months. Singh was definitely the heel here and focused his attack on the arm. The rollup finish out of an armbar attempt came out of nowhere and I nearly missed it. Rudolph would go on to be a major force in the Rumble, but more on that later...

Mark Bland had a verbal confrontation with his political adversary Travis Cook, setting up Cook's role later in the night. Bland sat at ringside for most of the show and interacted with a few different people as part of the angles. He's a bigger guy and a retired wrestler and it seems like they're teasing an in-ring return; he had a one-shot appearance a few years ago in High Voltage Wrestling against "The Future" Donovan Ruddick. With all the heel bosses hogging the spotlight in wrestling these days, it's nice to have a somewhat-reasonable authority figure...

Mike Sydal vs. "Showtime" Bradley Charles: Wasn't sure about the face/heel alignment in this one, but it seems to be an understated part of SBC's nickname: "Showtime" means he's a heel, "Sir" means he's a face. Sydal is a guy who's effective in either the face or the heel role; that's one thing I would actually put above his brother in that regard. Matt(Evan Bourne for you NEWBIEZ) did have a heel run in Wrestling Society X, but he's definitely better as a face. Saw more than one foot DDT on this night and did notice Pete marking out for it. :-D The moonsault with the yoga mat was a unique way to end the match.

Jon Webb(w/ Jack Gamble) vs. Ace Hawkins vs. "The Alternative" Brandon Gallagher vs. Evan "Money" Morris: Gamble briefly met with Webb as he entered but didn't come to ringside. The match structure was odd with three faces and one heel(Gallagher), but they did a few spots to develop more tension between the other three. I've seen Hawkins as a heel and Money had a heel run in NWA:CSCW this past year, so they could pull it off. The match ended with a finisher barrage; Webb hit Sliced Bread #2 on Hawkins and Gallagher stole the pin with feet on the ropes. Glad Gallagher's bringing that back as he used the ropes to pin Shorty at SICW a few weeks ago as well.

Kevin X vs. Mark Sterling: Kevin seems to bounce back and forth between the face and heel roles depending on who he's facing, but Sterling did a heel promo to establish the roles ahead of time. Sterling's now doing an arrogant Crossfit gimmick and does exercises during the match. He's reportedly getting a WWE tryout this coming week which is cool to hear. Kevin has the next title shot at Jake Dirden so I figured he was winning. Mark Bland "announced" Kevin's title shot at the upcoming Off Broadway show, but that was already posted on the Facebook event page...heh. That led Dirden to complain about how they just seem to be handing out title shots these days...

DPW Heavyweight Champion Jake Dirden vs. WLW Heavyweight Champion Elvis Aliaga, non-title: It seemed like the face/heel roles were more clearly defined for this one than in their previous meeting. They pushed this as a grudge match and "not about the title" which was a backhanded way of saying it was a non-title bout. Things broke down and both men shoved the ref to cause a no-contest finish(that usually gets called as a double DQ, but that works too). All three refs and Mark Bland tried to restore order; Dirden BELTed Aliaga and shoved the title belt in Bland's face before leaving...

The Bumrush Brothers(Shorty Biggs & Outtkast) vs. WLW Tag Team Champions The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson & David DeLorean) for the DPW Tag Team Titles: The Warriors defeated Shorty and substitute partner Evan Money at the January show to set this up. Shorty and Outtkast had held the titles for 22 months...that was partially due to some lengthy gaps between shows but still an impressive reign on the independent level. This was a really good tag match with some well-timed cutoff spots. Travis Cook made his presence felt which led to the finish: Magnuson pinned Shorty after a low blow from DeLorean. The Black Hand Warriors are only the second Dynamo Tag Team Champions and appear to be managed by Travis Cook now...wonder what "Ironman" Ken Kasa and "Mr. Unpredictable" Dave Vaughn think about that. Conflict of interest much?

20-Wrestler Dynamo Rumble for a guaranteed future Heavyweight title shot: I joked about it on Saturday: Battle royals are hell on my dorky note sheet. Rumble-style battle royals mean I'm keeping track of eliminations AND order of entry.

All previous wrestlers were in the Rumble except for Jake Dirden(champion) and Kevin X(already has a scheduled title shot). Entrants who didn't wrestle previously were Lucy Mendez, newcomer Andino Giovanni, Jack Gamble, and Dan Walsh. Giovanni wrestled his first few matches in 2013 before an injury put him on the shelf for the rest of the year. Lucy was a surprise #2 entrant and was able to last a little while before Wyatt eliminated her; she hadn't had many intergender bouts but she's getting a trial by fire in recent weeks. That also led to a minor edit as I couldn't exactly say "20-MAN Rumble"...heh.

Rivals from earlier in the show targeted each other and the Black Hand Warriors continued their WLW feud with High Level Enterprise(Gamble & Webb) as well as the Bumrush Brothers. Rudolph was the biggest guy in the match and it took a multi-man effort to get him out near the end. Shorty jumped Magnuson during his entrance and, in a nice touch, was holding an icepack on his groin to sell the low blow from earlier. Shorty happened to be the next entrant after Magnuson so he just got in the ring from there.

Shorty and Outtkast joined forces to eliminate Magnuson, but Magnuson pulled Shorty out of the ring from the floor. Walsh threw out Gallagher right away, but the blue-haired one ran back out to pull Walsh to the floor after Dan had been thrown over the top rope. Aliaga was another surprise entrant as he had already fought Dirden earlier in the night, but he REALLY wanted another shot at the champ. It came down to the #1 entrant(Wyatt) and the #20 entrant(Aliaga) and they had a good exchange; Dirden's arrival at ringside made the difference as Aliaga was distracted enough for Wyatt to eliminate him.

Things are slightly different in Dynamo with the current focus on Missouri shows; they'll return to Glen Carbon down the line, but it's Stratford and Off Broadway for the time being. State licensing means certain guys won't be on the Missouri shows(i.e. Ricky Cruz, K.C. Karrington and Steven Kennedy, Kasa and Vaughn). The championship pictures are developing well and more undercard feuds are happening; for a while, it seemed like a lot of people had nothing to do.

So: Jake Dirden is the champion with his next defense against Kevin X. Jeremy Wyatt has a guaranteed title shot. Elvis Aliaga wants another match with Dirden and you can't exclude former champion Dan Walsh for the championship picture. Ricky Cruz also has his issues with Dirden. Magnuson & DeLorean are the new Tag Champs but the Bumrush Brothers will have their mandatory rematch; Kasa & Vaughn may want another title shot which could prove problematic for manager Travis Cook. There are also the First United Church of Karrington and the team of Jack Adonis & Mike Sharona, so that could go in a few different directions.

Upcoming shows:
-Saturday 2/8: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 2/15: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Tuesday 2/18:  Dynamo in St. Louis, MO(Off Broadway)
-Friday 2/28 + Saturday 3/1: SLA in Alton, IL

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling. (One of these days I'll do a whole column about the "yay wrestling" thing...)