Unfortunately Bobby "The Brain" Heenan officially cancelled a few days before the event; however, he was rescheduled for the June 21st show. He had been hurt in a fall several weeks ago and promoter Herb Simmons posted on Facebook that he might not be able to attend the show, so he booked Jim Cornette to appear one way or the other.
The announced lineup stood otherwise; I'm pretty sure The Giant Assassin was mentioned as appearing at some point, but he wasn't there. As expected, they had a strong turnout for the show(the Observer update said it was a turnaway record crowd of 350 people).
Kayfabe Poker Night compatriots Landon Meyer and Matthew Rude were in the house and Ringsyders co-host Drew Abbenhaus got to hang out with Cornette all night. Got to chat with Cornette a bit during and after the show, plus got my picture taken with him(thanks Matt!).
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Jay King, Keith Smith Jr., and Commissioner Keith Smith(for the battle royal).
The show officially started with Herb Simmons interviewing longtime local DJs Mad Maynard & Jackie McCoy...needless to say, they're both big wrestling fans as well. At a previous show, Jackie asked Harley Race to put her in a headlock to see how it felt...heh. One of my friends noted that Mad Maynard looks EXACTLY like someone who would go by "Mad Maynard". Max Archer interrupted, clearly frustrated over his lack of appearances in recent months...he didn't take kindly to all the special guests taking HIS time. Archer's past record with ring announcers isn't the best(see also: Jeff Vernetti)...that trend continued as he earned a slap from Jackie McCoy.
"The Man Of Tomorrow" Daniel Eads & Joker vs. Ax (Allwardt) & The Iceman (Howard Moritz): Ax has tangled with both Eads and Joker in recent months, thus this tag match with recent SICW arrival Iceman. The ten-minute time limit nearly expired, triggering a discussion with a friend about how wrestlers aren't used to working toward a draw. It's a good plot device for rulebreakers to stall out the clock(especially if there's a Television Title in play), but it's rarely used any more. With all the belts in play in MMWA, I feel like they should put a strict ten-minute limit on their T.V. Title defenses to distinguish it from the other championships...but that's just me throwing something out there. Anywho, Ax pinned Joker when Iceman clipped Joker during a slam attempt, causing Ax to fall on top for the pin in 8:45.
"The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson vs. Max Archer: Lo and behold, Jackie McCoy just happened to be the special guest ring announcer for this one. Archer was still holding his face from the earlier slap, good for him. This was a surprisingly quick one-sided bout, but then the whole show ran longer than usual. Chops were served on this night, as you might expect. My comment to Landon and Matt: "Yeah, that's Chaz Wesson. He kinda does that." Chaz didn't even wrap up with one of his usual finishers as he took the win with a powerslam in 1:20.
"Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook) vs. "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson(w/ Big Daddy) for the Classic Title: Seemed early for the title match, but Powers-Cruz got more hype(the battle royal was the actual finale). Travis was handcuffed to Big Daddy, a local managing legend who I've heard some great stories about. Travis tripped up Gary so Big Daddy(no stranger to rulebreaking) retaliated by grabbing for Kasa's foot. The distraction led to a series of pin combos until Kasa small-packaged Jackson out of a Texas Cloverleaf attempt to edge out a win in 11:00. Gary's post-match promo seemed to hint at a departure or retirement, but he was just saying that he would have to work his way back up the ladder for another title shot. RULES~!
After the first intermission, Herb interviewed Jim Cornette. I wasn't the only one waiting for Travis Cook to stick his nose into the proceedings, but this segment went without an interruption...be patient, grasshopper.
Big Jim Hoffarth vs. Waco: The former Big Texan and Waco had issues leading up to Hoffarth's mask loss to Gary Jackson, leading to Waco turning on his then-tag partner...Waco had been MIA for a few months and they finally had their blowoff here. They got a surprising amount of time but they did a good job with it; Waco focused his attack on the arm to neutralize Hoffarth's power advantage. Hoffarth came back to win with the big splash in 10:43(!), then added a double-underhook powerbomb for good measure...why not?
"The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs vs. Flash Flanagan: Flanagan got a cheap win over Jake Dirden last month, so it seems like he'll remain in the title picture for the moment. Shorty may be a Tag Champ in Dynamo but he doesn't seem to win much elsewhere. Good matchup, at any rate; Shorty's extremely underrated. There was a great comedy spot where Shorty did a series of Junkyard Dog-style headbutts, causing Flash to retreat on all fours...and accidentally crotch himself on the ringpost. Ha ha. Flanagan took it with a Buff Blockbuster in 9:56.
"Dirdey" Jake Dirden & Heath Hatton vs. Bull Bronson & Frankie "The Thumper" Wyatt: Where's the beef? There's the beef. Dirden and Hatton are both gunning for Kasa's title but they had a couple of huge roadblocks in their way. Trying to think if this was the first time teaming for both sides; pretty sure it was. Bronson and Wyatt could be a great monster duo and they worked pretty well together. Random DQ finish at 9:23 when Wyatt threw Heath over the top rope, but he got back in with a chair to run off the big guys. (Minor edit: It was Bronson who threw Hatton out of the ring for the DQ.) His night would not be over, of course...
Ron Powers vs. Ricky Cruz, no-DQ loser-leaves-town match: They amended the stipulation to say that the loser would be gone from SICW for the rest of 2014, for the sake of clarity. I know one of my colleagues is adamant about how this particular stipulation never sticks. This feud WAS the SICW Classic Title picture for about a year...Ricky had issues with Ron dating back to Puerto Rican wrestling. Ron claimed he was "a different person" at that time, but the feue escalated until Cruz finally defeated him for the title. Ron gradually changed his targets to the other rulebreakers and the fans got on his side...something that presumably didn't sit well with Ricky after all Ron had done to him. On Ricky's side of things, he lost the title to Kasa under dubious circumstances and it took him months to get one rematch...a rematch that he won by DQ after a blatant low blow. His frustration mounted and he felt he was owed more opportunities...leading to his turn on Powers when he guest-refereed a match with Flanagan.
Things broke down in a hurry as several outside parties got involved(no-DQ!)...first it was Flanagan(leading to Jim Hoffarth running him off), then it was Kasa and Bronson. Is Bronson a member of the Travis Cook Organization now? It was inconclusive at the show itself, but I think Travis has scouted the big man in the past. The finish saw Powers turn his attention to Cook in a match with his immediate career at stake...then he fell prey to the same cheap superkick that led to his downfall in the Flanagan match where Ricky was the ref. It was tough to predict how this would turn out...especially if one looked at the bigger picture. Would Ricky lose here to focus on his newly-won Dynamo Pro Wrestling Championship? Also, Cruz had been demanding another title shot and had a mini-confrontation with Kasa and Cook after the match...maybe that's in the near future.
Travis had a lot to gloat about on this night...his champion retained his title and he took full credit for "running Ron Powers out of town". With his ego at an all-time high, he called out Cornette...resulting in an epic verbal exchange despite one of the microphones not working too well. Kasa ran in to hold Cornette back...but Hatton made the save before Cook could turn Cornette's own tennis racket against him. Heath got Kasa out of the way and Cornette gave Travis a good whack across the back with the racket...most tremendous. Cornette raised Heath's hand...wonder if he'll be a favorite in our main event?
Battle Royal: This featured everyone on the card besides Kasa, Gary, Ricky, and (obviously) Powers. I did my best to keep track of eliminations...as did Ben before his microphone went out for good. Therefore, I'll take his word on Archer and Joker's eliminations since I didn't see them happen in the crowd of humanity. One plot point saw Flanagan lock up with Hoffarth and eliminate him, leading to Hoffarth pulling Flash out of the ring from the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new feud! Bronson and Wyatt ruled the ring for most of it; they eliminated Dirden and Eads, leaving Hatton two-on-one against the duo. Heath took advantage of a miscommunication to get Wyatt out of the ring, then low-bridged the charging Bull to eliminate him for the win. Woo.
Okay...a lot's been set up for the near future. Ricky's been promised a title shot, but he'll tell you how that could go. Heath certainly has a lot of momentum for a championship opportunity plus a little bit of backstory from his near-miss in Caseyville. Dirden's always in contention as well...so they could go in a few directions from here.
This coming weekend has nothing local, amazingly enough...I may get some sleep or something.
Upcoming:
-Tuesday 5/27: DPW at Off Broadway
-Saturday 5/31: PWCS in Granite City, WLW in Troy MO
-Saturday 6/7: ROH in Collinsville(I need to order my ticket for that...)
-Saturday 6/14: Dynamo at Stratford Inn in Fenton, MMWA at South Broadway in St. Louis
-Saturday 6/21: SICW in East Carondelet(Bobby Heenan), CSCW in Fort Leonard Wood, MO
-Saturday 6/28: Dynamo in Glen Carbon, WLW in Troy MO
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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