Now, as promised, a special comment about the St. Louis Anarchy doubleshot this past Friday and Saturday at the Knights Of Columbus Hall in Alton, Illinois.
Mother Nature made the Saturday decision for the area wrestling fans; both Dynamo and WLW were cancelled due to the winter storm forecast. One of these days, Dynamo will have a show at Stratford Inn that DOESN'T coincide with incoming severe weather.
The Midwest wasn't the only area with a cancellation: Extreme Rising in Philadelphia was called off due to venue issues. Bolt Brady and Ricky Starks were booked for that show, but the cancellation meant they would stay in town for the weekend(Brady worked the Saturday show).
Card changes: Darren Dean wasn't at either show, so Dan Walsh made his return as part of the "BOSS" heel stable to team with Jeremy Wyatt. Adam Raw wasn't at the Friday show so Bolt Brady faced Brandon Espinosa, changing Brady's scheduled four-way dance into a three-way with Alex The Big Owl, Alex Castle, and Jordan Lacey.
Danny Cannon suffered a shoulder injury in his match on Friday(a late addition to the card against Zakk Sawyers); Jojo Bravo faced Bolt Brady on Saturday instead. Dean's absence led to Blake Steel making his SLA debut against Espinosa on Saturday.
The show was restructured a few times before that...they had originally scheduled Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, and both Young Bucks. The American Wolves were out due to TNA commitments and Matt Jackson was injured, leading to Nick Jackson getting substitute partners for the weekend.
Your ring announcer on Friday was Luke Roberts; I didn't recognize the ring announcer on Saturday. Didn't know the two referees for the weekend, but one was apparently Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE official Brandon Tolle. The other ref was heckled for wearing jeans on Friday, so he had dress pants on Saturday...CONTINUITY~! or something.
SLA reportedly set an attendance record on Friday; the weather forecast meant a slightly lower turnout on Saturday, but it was still a good crowd. Strong weekend all around for St. Louis Anarchy...woo.
Good weekend for Jojo Bravo and Brandon Espinosa(winning both nights). Bad weekend for Evan Gelistico as he lost both nights...they're teasing that Gelistico may be pulled out of the upcoming Lethal Lottery tournament due to his losing streak.
While Gerald James retained his title against Kyle O'Reilly on Saturday, he lost a non-title bout to Roderick Strong on Friday...that led to SLA announcing that there would be NO more non-title matches for the champion.
Can't think of any issues with the in-ring content...it depends on your view of the bang-bang Ring Of Honor style. I'm a bit more tolerant than others in that regard, but I can see how a person could become desensitized. If the main audience likes it, then that's what matters.
FRIDAY
Jojo Bravo vs. Evan Gelistico: Evan's recent woes included his loss of the ACW Heavyweight Title to Shawn Vexx. It didn't help that he seemed to underestimate Jojo...other than his close loss to Michael Elgin last month, Bravo's been on a hot streak. WA-SHING~!
Bolt Brady vs. Brandon Espinosa: Espinosa's been getting more positive reactions at Anarchy lately...he's still doing the same schtick but he's just getting more cheers for it. This one seemed surprisingly short, but then their shows do tend to run long so there's nothing wrong with streamlining things a bit. Friday's show had ten matches, after all.
The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. Dan Walsh & Jeremy Wyatt(w/ Greg Jovi): Nice misdirection as Wyatt turned to the entranceway to acknowledge the arrival of his replacement partner...leading to Walsh running in from the front door for an attack from behind. It was tough to predict a winner here: The Hooligans had the big match on Saturday, but it was the first outing for the new heel stable. The brothers Cutter got the win, but it was a closer finish than you'd think...pretty sure that was the first time Walsh and Wyatt had joined forces.
Darin Corbin vs. Angelus Layne(w/ Espinosa): Layne was the fan favorite for the night, even sending Espy back to the dressing room before the match. Corbin acted very heelish but still got a lot of positive response since he's an entertaining character. He had to be provoked into fighting seriously as he didn't want to hit a woman...this stemmed from Corbin accidentally spearing Layne during a previous match with Espy. At different times, I've seen women get hurt by low blows and NOT hurt by low blows...is it too much to ask for some consistency out of professional wrestling? (Don't answer that.)
Arik Cannon vs. Ricky Starks: No real storyline behind this one...SLA doesn't have a whole lot of those once you get past the main angle. Cannon matches are always fun and usually beer-centric...Starks didn't care for the Pabst Blue Ribbon. :)
Heavyweight Champion Gerald James(w/ Dorian Victor) vs. Roderick Strong, non-title: Gerald had originally been scheduled to face Eddie Edwards. As for this one...yup, chops. Owie. Strong got the win; hadn't seen him finish with the Sick Kick in a while as he's been using the Falcon Arrow backbreaker in Ring Of Honor. The finish led to the aforementioned edict: Now one-on-one matches for the champion will ALWAYS be for the title.
Alex The Big Owl(w/ Jacob Dangle) vs. Alex Castle vs. Jordan Lacey(w/ Jovi): If you want to follow the trent, Dangle was an LWA original...so yeah. Lacey used a song by local band Greek Fire for his entrance theme...seemed kinda upbeat for a bad guy's music. :)
Danny Cannon vs. Zakk Sawyers: Drew Abbenhaus noticed a spot where Cannon took a bad fall near the turnbuckles...he worked through it for the rest of the match so I didn't think much of it. I hadn't seen the tweet from St. Louis Anarchy about his injury and didn't find out until after the Saturday show...ak. I hadn't seen Cannon before and didn't know what to expect, but he was impressive...hope to see him again once he heals up.
Kyle O'Reilly vs. Christian Rose: These two fought at a previous SLA show, but that was a while back...good bout here. O'Reilly won and it looked like YAY MUTUAL RESPECT~!...but then the BOSS stable surrounded the ring and Rose took out O'Reilly with a cheapshot, leading to a major beatdown. Good way to set up the following night's title bout...don't know if this makes Rose a regular part of the stable or not.
Johnny Gargano & Nick Jackson vs. Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett: Since Gargano is part of Team FIST with Chuck Taylor and Nick Jackson is one-half of The Young Bucks, I propose the team name "The FISTBucks". Feedback is appreciated (though quite possibly ignored). I marked out for Jackson's double-handspring back rake...yup. :-D Drew respectfully declined the invitation to the Superkick Party. Pretty cool finisher as Jackson springboarded into the "spike" half of a spike Tombstone. I had in my dork notes that Vega was pinned but the SLA Facebook comment said it was Fitchett...um, buy the DVD. *sheepish grin*
SATURDAY
Onward to night two...
Zakk Sawyers vs. Evan Gelistico: Didn't expect Sawyers to win, but Evan's recent losing streak had me wondering...and so it came to pass. Had only seen Sawyers on Pro Wrestling Collision and a few other YouTube videos prior to this...sounds like he'll be back in the future.
Mat Fitchett vs. Jeremy Wyatt(w/ Jovi & Dangle): This stemmed from Wyatt's interference in the Yuletide Terror main event as he cost Fitchett his title match against Gerald James. That feud seems to be continuing as Gerald distracted Fitchett to cost him the bout.
Alexandre Rudolph appeared as himself for the first time in a while, prompting an attack by Walsh and Jordan Lacey...Adam Raw ran out to even the odds as a huge brawl erupted. Raw was ridiculously bloody by the end of it. Oddly, all but Walsh were in their wrestling gear despite not being scheduled for matches on Saturday...heh. Walsh got a "F*** Your Dress Shirt" chant...bwahahaha.
Roderick Strong vs. Davey Vega: The finish was a slight surprise and came out of nowhere...go figure. Really good match...CODE OF HONOR~! Briefly met Strong after the show and dropped the name of a mutual friend...yo, Ryan Ash. :-D
Brandon Espinosa vs. Blake Steel: Steel made his debut with Dragon Gate USA this past weekend under a slightly altered name...I see him in attendance at local shows quite a bit, but I hadn't seen him wrestle in a while...he tends to work in central Illinois for the most part. Solid outing for both guys...hope to see Steel around here a bit more often.
The Hooligans vs. Nick Jackson & A.C.H.: A.C.H. was at AAW on Friday night so he only worked the Saturday show for SLA. After being a rulebreaker for the most part on Friday, Nick was a fan favorite as A.C.H.'s partner...go figure. Oddly, the anti-Young Bucks sentiment had cooled down a bit on night two. A.C.H. took the fall after a miscommunication between the tag partners...good way to finish this one. It sounds liks SLA will try to do Hooligans-Young Bucks for real once Matt's back in action.
Bolt Brady vs. Jojo Bravo: This turned out to be a battle of fan favorites. Bravo is a SUMO~! so Brady had trouble bodyslamming him...heh. Jojo was introduced as "Double J" so he kept talking about "slapnuts" for some reason. The SAMURAI DRIVAH led to another victory for Bravo...good for him.
Gerald James vs. Kyle O'Reilly, best-of-three-falls for the Heavyweight Title: James brought out Jovi, Dangle, Walsh, and Lacey(no Dorian?), but the referee ejected everyone from ringside before the bell...good move. Fans chanted for "Gary's Mom" at both shows...yyyyyup. They fought to the stage area in the third fall and Kyle hit a wall-walk DDT, then airplane-spun James all the way back to the ringside area...heh. The BOSS guys got involved and Kyle fought them off...only to get crucifixed for a flash pin to end it. Kyle said he still wanted da belt, so we'll see if he stays in the title picture...
The rest of March looks like this:
Saturday 3/8: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
Saturday 3/22: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
Saturday 3/29: SICW in Caseyville, IL; CSCW in Richland, MO
I have a family outing on the 29th so I don't know if I'll get to any shows...we'll see.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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