Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in Caseyville, Illinois.
This was SICW's first show in Caseyville in recent memory; it was a benefit for local firefighters. I had a busy evening as I drove to St. Charles for my cousin's wedding reception, then drove back for the wrestling show...the show was only about a ten-minute drive from my house.
I probably looked a bit odd as I was dressed more formally than usual(for the reception), but I still bothered to wear the Wayne's World baseball cap that seems to have become my identifying trademark in these circles. It's to the point where people ask about the hat if I don't wear it...recently I was even asked if this was my real hair under the hat since it's pretty long nowadays. Bwahahaha...
Attendance was really good for the first show at a new venue...it was estimated to be slightly over 200 fans. Hope they run there again in the future...always appreciate shows that are closer to home for me.
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon, your referees were Jay King and Keith Smith Jr.
"The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs vs. Dark Secret: "Dark Secret" was a masked wrestler who I hadn't seen before...a friend speculated on his identity and I'll leave it at that. Shorty didn't use his usual Shortcut finisher; with a bit more ceiling clearance than the East Carondelet venue, we saw the guillotine legdrop for the first time in a while. This was a bit more competitive than you would think, but Shorty got the win in 5:45.
Daniel Eads vs. Frankie "The Thumper" Wyatt vs. Max Archer, three-way dance: SICW doesn't do a lot of three-way matches and even fewer with elimination rules. Eads and Wyatt have recent issues; Wyatt spent the first few minutes outside the ring and let Eads and Archer fight it out. Eads eliminated Archer after a short-arm clothesline; didn't get the time of the fall but it was before the five-minute mark. Archer was supposed to leave the ringside area after being pinned, but he stuck around and kept interfering against Eads. Eads survived the two-on-one situation and the referee seemed to let it go...resulting in the indirect schoolboy trip that led to Eads' victory at 7:33.
Big Jim Hoffarth vs. Ballistic Brent Myers: Hadn't seen Myers in a while; not too familiar with him but he's apparently from the Chicago area. Myers survived several high-impact power moves from Hoffarth...figured it'd just be a one-sided match but he put up a good fight. Big Jim got the win with the big splash in 5:47.
After all this time of attending local independent shows, this was my first chance to officially meet Mr. Larry Matysik. I'm a bit young to remember Wrestling At The Chase, but it was a staple for longtime wrestling fans in the St. Louis area and he was the voice of that television program. Since I send the show results to Pro Wrestling Illustrated and a few websites, it's funny to see the usual credit line in the Observer update: "Credit to Larry Matysik and Patrick Brandmeyer". He's a very nice guy and I appreciate that he took the time to converse with myself and Drew Abbenhaus.
Promoter Herb Simmons did a quick interview with Larry after intermission...it's always a tough question to ask who was the toughest guy around. My dad wasn't too big into wrestling, but the name he always remembered was Dick The Bruiser; I saw a few of The Bruiser's matches on SICW Wrestling Explosion's flashback segments.
Manager Travis Cook ran his mouth, introducing himself to the Caseyville audience and drawing their ire fairly quickly. That brought out Heath Hatton to run him off...he seems to be fairly soft-spoken guy, which is fine for a down-to-earth fan favorite character. It helped that he had strong heel characters(Ken Kasa and Travis) as his foils for the night.
"The Great One/Gorgeous/Night Train" Gary Jackson vs. Joker: Gary had a proverbial uphill battle against the larger Joker. This was solid for what it was...good finish to the match with Gary winning through his experience advantage at 7:17. There was some tension after the match since Joker thought it was just a two-count...but they shook hands after the match, so maybe Joker's going to become a fan favorite.
"Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook) vs. Heath Hatton for the Classic Title: Good feeling-out sequence to start as Kasa claimed he could easily outwrestle Hatton...Kasa got into the amateur "down position" and Heath proceeded to prove him wrong. There was some controversy with the finish as it looked like the ref MIGHT have seen Travis' belt attack but proceeded to finish the ten-count at 18:58. It's a tough situation as it would have resulted in a disqualification but the belt wouldn't have changed hands...especially since Kasa and Cook have no qualms about retaining the title in that fashion. Hatton dished out some retribution on Cook after the bout...the match got a great crowd reaction and I could see these two meeting again in the future.
Ron Powers & "The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson vs. Ricky Cruz & Ax Allwardt, best-of-three-falls: The stipulation was a last-minute addition to the main event. Ax replaced Dave Vaughn who was originally scheduled for the bout. Obviously Powers and Cruz have a ton of history; Chaz fought Ricky last week in East Carondelet and Ricky busted him open with a steel chair. Ax has battled Chaz on a few occasions in a battle of Old School Warriors. One of the main stories of the match was the tension between Ricky and referee Keith Smith Jr. after last week's events: Commissioner Keith Smith took matters into his own hands against Cruz, but Cruz got the better of the fight until Keith Jr. ran him off with a chair. With Ricky's recent attitude change, I'm sure he'll have his own theory about Keith Jr.'s presence as the official in this match...heh.
At any rate, the first fall ended out of nowhere as Ricky shoved Keith Jr., drawing a DQ at 6:56. Things broke down in the second fall as all four men brawled; I was expecting the rulebreaker side to even things up, but the fan favorites took it in two straight. Chaz won the second fall with the cross-body off the top on Ax in a total match time of 15:36; another benefit of the ceiling clearance as he usually has to watch his head on the top rope. Fans go home happy, the end.
In-ring quality was pretty solid; nothing to complain about here (though I'm sure some of you might be looking for that sort of thing, LOL). Sometimes I watch wrestling on my own and sometimes I watch with other people with different perspectives on the product. Sometimes those people are fellow fans, other times those people are wrestlers or people in the wrestling business like Mr. Matysik. It's always an educational experience as they notice things that I might not catch.
Elsewhere this weekend: NWA Central States Championship Wrestling had a show in Richland, Missouri. "Showtime" Shane Somers retained the NWA Central States Title in a countout loss to G.Q. Smooth (managed by Garrett Williams). Evan "Money" Morris retained the Affliction Title against "The Playmaker" Mitch Johnson(Ben Simon's favorite wrestler!). The match initially went to a time-limit draw, but non-title overtime was ordered and Morris got the quick win in that time period. WLW Heavyweight Champion Elvis Aliaga added more gold to his resume as he won a ten-man Rumble-style battle royal for the vacant NWA Missouri Title.
April is shaping up to be VERY busy with three Dynamo shows as well as the monthly offerings from MMWA and SICW. To wit:
Saturday 4/5: Dynamo in Fenton(Stratford Inn) (Jake Dirden(C) vs. Jeremy Wyatt)
Saturday 4/12: MMWA in St. Louis(South Broadway) (Gary Jackson & Brian James vs. Brandon Espinosa & Ace Hawkins)
Saturday 4/19: Dynamo in Glen Carbon (Jake Dirden(C) vs. Davey Richards)
Tuesday 4/22: Dynamo in St. Louis(Off Broadway)
Saturday 4/26: SICW in East Carondelet
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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