Monday, February 17, 2014

SICW Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.

Another packed house for SICW; I left the house earlier than usual to beat the rush. I figured I would be standing for most of the night anyway; promoter Herb Simmons had commented on Facebook that the show was a legit sellout as far as seats were concerned.

I forget if the Gary Jackson-Alexandre Rudolph match was mentioned on Missouri Wrestling Revival, the St. Louis Wrestling website, or on Wrestling Explosion...if I put the match in a lineup on the "This Week In Wrestling" posting, it was made official in some fashion. As it turned out, Rudolph was booked elsewhere.

Herb started the show by interviewing Gary Jackson, acknowledging Gary's retirement from the military after 25 years of service. MWR had a good column on his service, deeming February 15th "Gary Jackson Day".

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon, your referees were Jay King and Keith Smith Jr.

Joker vs. Andino Giovanni: I'm pretty sure this was Joker's first win in SICW. This was also one of the first singles matches for Giovanni as I've mostly seen him in battle royals before this. Didn't get all the match times on this night, but this went about four minutes. It was fine for what it was.

Daniel Eads vs. Frankie "The Thumper" Wyatt: This stemmed from a DQ finish to last month's match when Wyatt threw Eads over the top rope. Said finish can easily be handwaved as SICW is one of the few promotions where that draws a disqualification; newcomers may not be aware of that rule. This went about eight minutes and ended out of nowhere with a missed elbowdrop and handful of tights; Eads did get a big power spot with a modified Samoan Drop on the big guy.

Gary Jackson vs. Purple Passion: Hadn't seen Passion in a while; would the universe implode if he and Flaming Freddie Fury were in the same place at the same time? Passion did his usual schtick but Gary won in about six and a half minutes with the Cloverleaf.

Bobby D vs. Ax (Allwardt): I would call Ax's win a bit of an upset as Bobby had been fairly successful in recent months. Ax has used a few different finishers in SICW, but then the piledriver is Ron Powers' main move. This went close to eleven minutes(!).

Heath Hatton vs. Dave Vaughn(w/ Travis Cook): Travis interjected himself on a few occasions, but the referee finally caught him. In an interesting judgement call, the ref ejected him from ringside rather than call for the DQ. Had never seen that sort of double-KO spot before(dueling flying shoulderblocks) and it looked like Vaughn was dazed after that...he had to be assisted back to the dressing room area. Didn't get the match time for this one. This feud...MUST CONTINUE~!

Ironman Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook) vs. Big Jim Hoffarth for the Classic Title: The former Big Texan had a good winning streak after losing the mask. He had already been getting some positive fan response before that, so the face turn was a mere formality. Good strategy on Kasa's part to work on the leg...this kept Texan from being able to run the ropes for his big splash finisher. He tried a splash off the second rope, but couldn't ascend the turnbuckles quickly enough and Kasa moved out of the way. I wasn't in a good position to see whether any extra shenanigans were involved in the small package finish, but it got the job done and Kasa retained his title in about ten and a half minutes. Kasa stands as the longest-reigning top champion in the immediate area; Espinosa just regained the MMWA Heavyweight Title while Dirden(Dynamo) and Gerald James(Anarchy) won their belts in October. Kasa won the belt from Ricky Cruz last June.

Ron Powers & "Dirdey" Jake Dirden vs. Ricky Cruz & Flash Flanagan: Ricky turned on Powers last month when he was the guest ref for Powers' grudge match with Flanagan. Powers & Dirden have been dubbed "Brody disciples" by Larry Matysik. Ricky REALLY didn't want to tangle with Powers as he rushed to tag out on a few occasions. The referee didn't QUITE miss the chairshot that led to the finish, but we'll just pretend he did. I think this was only the second time Flanagan's been pinned in SICW(the first was by Ricky in a triple threat match) so it meant something for Dirden to get the fall. Didn't get the time on this one either.

It's great to see the local groups drawing as well as they have been...things will be busy for the next little while.

Upcoming shows:

-Tuesday 2/18: Dynamo in St. Louis, MO(Off Broadway)
-Friday 2/28: SLA in Alton, IL
-Saturday 3/1: SLA in Alton, IL, Dynamo in Fenton(Stratford Inn)
-Saturday 3/8: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 3/22: SICW in East Carondelet, IL (Usually expect the SICW show to be the week after the MMWA show, so this was a slight deviation from the norm.)

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

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