HRW Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Sunday's High Risk Wrestling show at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville, Illinois.

I was fortunate to hear about this show; Crimefighter posted about it on Facebook after seeing the event listed on the Hooligans' calendar.  I probably would have heard about it from Magic Man as he posted a lot about it in the weeks leading up to the show.  Frank Thurman was the guy behind the show; I don't think he had put on any shows since the PWA event in Salem, Illinois in September of 2009.

It's been a few years since a wrestling show was held in Belleville.  SICW has done a few shows in that building and GCW ran there a handful of times back in the day.  I had wondered if there would be any conflict with SICW in that regard; in fact, promoter Herb Simmons said he had been contacted by people thinking it was an SICW event.

Attendance wasn't that great...several people said they were also fortunate to find out about the event.  The fans in the house had a good time and said they'd be back if HRW had another show; the names on the card certainly helped to draw in the people that were there.  There were several people on this show that I hadn't seen in a while who don't usually work in this area.

Lineup changes:  Jonathan Gresham cancelled a day or two before the show and was replaced by ROH Heavyweight Champion Michael Elgin...not bad for a last-minute substitute.  Brett Gakiya wasn't there(think I heard he was injured) and neither was Jojo Bravo(no idea why he was absent); Bolt Brady was moved to the triple threat with A.C.H. and C.J. Esparza while Elgin proteges Danny Adams and Paco Gonzalez worked the other triple threat with Nick Brubaker.  The opening tag match was another late addition to the show.

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon.  Your referees were Nick Ridenour, Drew Thomas(who wrestles in central Illinois), Robert King, and Mario Scruggs.  Your video commentary team was Ben Simon and Patrick Brandmeyer...wait, what?  Hadn't done commentary in quite a while...other than a guest spot or two at MMWA, my last time on a wrestling-related microphone was the final GCW event in 2007.  Ben Simon asked if I wanted to do it and I appreciated the opportunity.

HRW was said to have slightly different rules.  There were no countouts and disqualifications would only take place in specific situations:  Use of a foreign object, direct outside interference, or striking a referee.

The Viking War Party("The American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "The Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell)(w/ Magic Man) vs. Davey Vega & Mallaki Matthews:  Hadn't seen Vega as a heel in a long time.  The Vikings threw chairs before the match to establish the mood, such as it was.  Vega and Mallaki have plenty of tag team experience with other partners, so they worked together fairly well after a few minutes.  However, the more experienced team prevailed as Rudolph pinned Mallaki after the powerbomb/top-rope backcracker combo in 7:50.

Paco Gonzalez vs. Danny Adams vs. Nick Brubaker, HRW Title Tournament:  To put it in perspective, the last time I saw Brubaker live was at a High VOLTAGE Wrestling show.  He primarily competes in central Illinois; I'm told he's a regular at Dreamwave Wrestling.  Paco was the clear face and Brubaker was the clear heel, putting Adams somewhere in the middle.  Brubaker had the experience edge and let the other two do the lion's share of the ring time...then stole the pin on Adams after Paco's frog splash at 4:57.

"Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Leland Race vs. Blake Belakis, HRW Title Tournament:  Belakis competes in central Illinois as "The Apex" Blake Steel; since a LOT of wrestlers use the name "Steel" in some form, he started going by Blake Belakis in other organizations(including Dragon Gate USA and Full Impact Pro).  Leland Race once competed as Jason Jones(his gear for this show even had the name "Jones" on it), but he recently changed his name and was acknowledged as Harley Race's son.  He does a bit more high-flying than you would expect out of a Race, but then Harley WAS known for his diving headbutts.  This was another case of one clear heel and one clear face with the third man(Race) in the middle ground.  Similar to the previous bout, the heel stole the win after one of the faces did the damage.  Elgin hit Race with the turnbuckle powerbomb, but Belakis high-kneed Elgin out of the ring from behind and covered Race for the three-count.

Stacey O'Brien(w/ Magic Man) vs. "Miss Natural" Heather Patera:  Stacey and Magic Man entered on scooters...no, really.  I'm pretty sure this is the first time I'd ever seen Stacey in the face role.  In another recent familial revelation, Miss Natural started going by Heather Patera in the past year or so; she even dyed her hair blond for a little while to emulate WWE Hall Of Famer Ken Patera before going back to her natural brunette look.  The two are currently feuding over the WLW Women's Title as Miss Natural recently captured the championship from Devyn Nicole; they're doing a best-of-five series over the belt.  Fun, relatively short matchup here; Magic Man distracted Miss Natural with a trick flower(which I guess didn't count as direct interference) and Stacey won with a backcracker in 5:17.

A.C.H. vs. Bolt Brady vs. C.J. Esparza, HRW Title Tournament:  A.C.H. and Bolt both started in the Texas area before moving to the Midwest; Esparza primarily competes in central Illinois as one-half of Zero Gravity with Gakiya.  C.J. felt "left out" in the early stages of the matchup...I joked about how we live in a "post-racial society" and all(yes, the ref was also black).  Have seen a bit more of Zero G through AAW's online TV show.  This was a battle of fan favorites and billed as the high-flyers' bout of the night.  Fun bout; A.C.H. pinned Esparza with a German suplex in 8:30.

"The Anarchist" Arik Cannon vs. "The Ego" Dustin Bozworth:  This was my first time seeing Bozworth; he's primarily competed.  Cannon didn't have his usual cooler of Pabst Blue Ribbon and showed a bit of his technical side in the early going...this was billed as a "strong-style showdown" which seemed to play into Cannon's usual gameplan.  The finish came out of nowhere on a small package pin and I initially thought Cannon was the winner, but it was his shoulders that were down and Bozworth got the slightly surprising victory in 7:34.

A.C.H. vs. Blake Belakis vs. Nick Brubaker, HRW Title Tournament Finals:  They had some pretty nice title belts for the winners of the top two matches on this show.  This was an elimination-style three-way dance as opposed to the one-fall triple threat bouts earlier in the night, but people still broke up pins out of either habit or ego.  A.C.H. came out favoring his shoulder, but I couldn't remember a spot in his earlier match where he might have injured it.  Either way, he was the underdog against two heels who had free reign to work together.  A.C.H. took them both out with a suicide dive and then eliminated Brubaker with a German suplex in 8:15...Belakis went for the kill and got small-packaged for a quick second fall at 8:24.  Hey, good stuff...A.C.H. is the first High Risk Wrestling Champion.

The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. Team Overkill("The Money" Matt Cage & Christian Rose), Three Stages Of Hell Match For The HRW Tag Team Titles.  The first stage was falls-count-anywhere.  The second stage was a ladder match(or, essentially, a hardcore match with ladder usage strongly encouraged).  The final stage was last-team-standing...it looked like both members of the team had to be counted down for ten.  It didn't take long for the match to get out of hand as they fought all over the building...Hardcore Andy was working security and got knocked down in the chaos, leading to a Hooligan bodyslamming Matt Cage onto him!  The first fall ended with Mason rolling up Rose on the floor at 5:42.  As the Hooligans brought out the ladder for the second stage, Cage and Rose grabbed the title belts to wipe out the brothers Cutter.  Team Overkill regained control as the match stayed in the general area of the ring...Rose hit his Go 2 Sleep variant on Mason and Cage followed up with a Codebreaker, then they dogpiled him for the second fall at 9:24.  After that, both teams brought out the heavy artillery...the Hooligans hit their finisher on Rose and then Cage, leaving both down for the count at 13:19 to make Devin & Mason Cutter the first HRW Tag Team Champions.  Woo.

Fun show for a first effort...hopefully they'll get more fans in the house if/when they run another event.

Thus ended my run of five shows in ten days...whew.

The rest of August looks like this:

-Friday 8/8:  Dynamo in Eureka, MO
-Saturday 8/9:  PWCS in Granite City, IL; MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 8/16:  SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Saturday 8/23:  Dynamo in Glen Carbon, IL

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.