Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
It was another full house at SICW...attendance seemed to be SLIGHTLY down but not drastically. Now that the weather's getting nicer, wrestling crowds may be affected.
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon, your referees were Keith Smith Jr. and Jay King.
Promoter Herb Simmons started the show by hyping the night's card and mentioning next week's Caseyville show...I hadn't heard much about that show and, until recently, wasn't sure if it was still happening. Good to hear...I should be able to make it to that. Herb did a quickie interview with Brian Kelley about the new Missouri Wrestling Revival yearbook...check it out if you have the chance. I may have contribued a few things to said publication.
Andino Giovanni vs. Waco: I didn't see when the injury happened, but Giovanni seemed to be favoring his shoulder early in the bout. Unfortunately, it was apparently the shoulder he had previously injured. Hope it's nothing serious...Waco got a quick pin once it was clear that Giovanni was struggling to continue.
Big Jim Hoffarth vs. Max Archer: Odd officiating in this one as Waco blatantly interfered, but Hoffarth fought off his former tag partner without much trouble and the referee let the bout continue. Hoffarth went on to win, rebounding from his loss to Classic Champion Ken Kasa at last month's show.
Heath Hatton vs. "The Money" Matt Cage: This was Cage's SICW debut, but not the first time these two have crossed paths. They had a big rivalry in Pro Wrestling Collision, so they know each other very well and had a really good matchup. I wasn't sure how Cage's style would work with this particular audience...SICW caters to a more old-school crowd than the Ring Of Honor style of St. Louis Anarchy or even AAW. It seemed to go over well, so that's cool...hopefully Cage will be back in the near future.
Good to see "The Icon" Chris Hargas back at a wrestling show...he was injured last year and will be returning to action in the near future(specifically next month). Ben Simon kept directing him toward the video camera...heh. That's an overlooked part of wrestling once television is involved: Learning to play to the camera(s).
"The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs vs. "Gentleman" Jake Parnell: Wasn't sure why Parnell didn't have his top hat and gloves since he was the "rulebreaker" on this night. Spoke to a friend who said that attire isn't too bad for a fan favorite role...he could give out the hat and gloves to fans a la Bret Hart's shades. They teased a draw but Shorty picked up the win slightly before the time limit expired...don't think either of these guys have won too much in SICW.
"The Great One/Gorgeous/Night Train" Gary Jackson vs. Mallaki Matthews: THE RULES~! are still a crowd-pleaser. This was Mallaki's debut with the promotion; I had seen him at Anarchy and Pro Wrestling Collision in the past. Solid outing here; Gary got the clean win and could easily move back into title contention if that's the route they take.
"The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson vs. Ricky Cruz: Ricky looks very different now that he's clean-shaven and short-haired. Neither guy was giving an inch on this night, so Cruz hauled off and blasted Wesson in the head with a chair. That led to the obvious disqualification and Chaz was left bloody...Ricky fought off Shorty and even Commissioner Keith Smith before Keith Jr. ran him off with a chair. Keith Sr. can still step in the ring on occasion, so we may see him take matters into his own hands...there's also the possibility of Keith Jr. defending his family's honor.
Ron Powers & Daniel Eads vs. Ax (Allwardt) & Frankie "The Thumper" Wyatt: The only card change of the night was Ax replacing "Mr. Unpredictable" Dave Vaughn...from what I understand, Vaughn is taking a break from wrestling. All the best to him; hopefully he'll return down the line. Ax and Wyatt had matching gear; always good to see for a tag team. Eads took the abuse for his side, then Powers cleaned house after the hot tag. Powers tagged Eads back in for a modified Rocket Launcher, leading to Eads pinning Wyatt to even the score in their feud.
"Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook) vs. "Dirdey" Jake Dirden, best-of-three-falls for the Classic Title: Kasa got a flash pin in their previous encounter, so this was set up to establish a clear winning...it didn't quite work out that way, but points for effort. They had short rest periods after each fall...Kasa's promos leading up to the match teased that they were going long. I don't think I'd seen either of these guys in a match of this length before...so kudos to them for that. Kasa's interviews teased that they would go the full hour and they went just over thirty-five minutes. The interviews also struck an interesting nerve; Kasa asserted that Dirden gets his opportunities solely because he's trying to be Bruiser Brody in an area where Brody was once a big deal.
Most of the time was taken up by the first fall, ending with Dirden getting the clean win via Asiatic Spike. The rulebreaking kicked into high gear for the rest of the match as Travis Cook repeatedly got involved; that directly led to the end of the second fall as Dirden was counted out. In a nice touch, the turnbuckle kickoff counter to the Spike didn't work this time as Dirden rolled off his shoulders while maintaining the hold. THREE John Wu Dropkicks in the final fall didn't keep Dirden down. The ref was in a tough spot as he could have easily disqualified Kasa for Cook's blatant interference...but the title wouldn't have changed hands on a DQ and Travis was blantly trying to save the title. Dirden got a decisive win in the first fall...so that's a suitable explanation for him to get another shot in the future.
The next month or so will be very busy...next weekend is SICW in Caseyville as well as NWA:CSCW in Richland, MO. April has three Dynamo shows(Fenton, Glen Carbon, and Off Broadway), MMWA, and SICW...then St. Louis Anarchy returns on May 2nd. Good times.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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