Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about upcoming independent wrestling shows in the greater St. Louis area. (Okay, I rarely promise anything related to these commentaries, but the format is a homage to Keith Olbermann so I feel obliged to start with that.)

The schedule will be getting very crowded in the next few months, meaning local fans will have to make choices between the area groups. There are three shows scheduled for September 27th and three events scheduled for October 11th...geography will be a factor to some people, I would imagine.

WLW had a show in Vienna this past Friday; it looks like Heavyweight Champion Ace Steel won't be at every show, so the Tag Team Title match headlined the show. The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson & David DeLorean) regained the belts from High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb) and another bout between the teams is scheduled for Linn on September 13th. Women's Champion "Miss Natural" Heather Patera is in a best-of-five series with former champ Stacey O'Brien and the series is now tied at one win apiece, but Stacey won't be competing at the Linn show so Miss Natural will face another former champion in the form of Devyn Nicole.

WLW had a show scheduled for Troy, Missouri this past Saturday but it was cancelled due to the Labor Day holiday, once again ix-naying my plans to finally attend a WLW show. I'll get to one eventually...hopefully. Their next Troy show is set for September 27th, but there are two shows closer to me on that night so I probably won't make it to that...

Moving on to Dynamo Pro Wrestling...the Glen Carbon show scheduled for Friday, September 19th was cancelled, so the only show currently set for September is this Saturday in Fenton. (Haven't heard anything about Off Broadway shows.) Conspicuous by their absences from the posted lineup are Heavyweight/Tag Team Champion Ricky Cruz and co-Tag Champ Brandon Espinosa...it doesn't necessarily mean they won't be there, but it still seems unusual. I imagine something is afoot in that regard, perhaps involving our esteemed Executive Director Mark Bland...we shall see. (EDIT: Cruz, Espinosa, and Lucy Mendez are all confirmed to be in Iowa for 3XW this coming weekend, so they won't be at Dynamo on Saturday.)

The posted lineup features The Bite Club(Rocket Mapache & Jackal) facing the Black Hand Warriors for the next shot at the Tag Titles as well as "Dirdey" Jake Dirden vs. "The Bosnian Warchild" Spi-Ral. "The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs faces the returning Evan "Money" Morris, Elvis Aliaga gets a rematch with Outtkast, and former WCW T.V. and Tag Champion Beautiful Bobby Eaton will be making an appearance.

On September 13th, I'll finally make it back to the beautiful and/or historic South Broadway Athletic Club for MMWA...I haven't been to a show there since March. In April, I finally discovered what it would take to keep me away from an indy show: Hospitalization due to acute bronchitis. Since then, there has always seemed to be another show on the nights of SBAC shows...big thanks to Timothy Miller for posting videos online, allowing me to keep up on the goings-on.

I'm a big fan of the one-night tournament gimmick in general and this show will feature the annual King Of St. Louis Cable Tournament. The winner gets Money-In-The-Bank-esque privileges and can challenge for any title at any time. The main event will notably feature the previous three tournament winners in a unique "two-fall" match: Heavyweight Champion Brandon Espinosa, Survivor Champion "Big" Dave Osborne, and "Da Bomb" Brian James. Both falls will work like your standard triple threat match, but the first fall will be for Osborne's Survivor Title and the second will be for Espy's Heavyweight Title. Also on the show, new Junior Heavyweight Champion "Risky Business" Everett Connors makes his first title defense against wrestler/manager/commentator/co-commissioner Sean Orleans.

Six men qualified for the tournament at the August show: Tag Team Champions A.J. Williams & Da'Marius Jones, "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson, Television Champion Moondog Rover, Barackus, and J-Mal Swagg. Going on the notion that the losers of those qualifiers are out of the running, that excludes these men from the final two spots: LaMarcus Clinton, Chase King, Tony Kozina, Lynn Mephisto, Brian James, and Johnathan Zulu. That doesn't mean one of the two resident commissioners(Jim Harris and Sean Orleans) won't rule otherwise, but I guess we'll find out on the night of the event.

The renamed Wrestling Invades America(fka Wrestling Invades Alton) has a show on Sunday, September 14th in Edwardsville with recent ROH signing Moose on the card. I haven't been to a WIA show yet, though I've watched some online videos of their matches. Yes, there has been much ado about the quality of the shows as well as the ring itself...I'll leave it at that.

SICW returns to East Carondelet on Saturday the 20th with "The Birdman" Koko B. Ware appearing. I only saw the tail end of the WWF Hall Of Famer's career, but he was one-half of High Energy with Owen Hart and he had one of the best brainbusters in wrestling(known as the Ghostbuster at the time).

The card itself is loaded with "Ironman" Ken Kasa getting his rematch against Heath Hatton with Travis Cook barred from the building; also, Red River Jack faces "The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz on the heels of Jack costing Cruz his title shot at Hatton in August. Gary Jackson will face newcomer Mohamad Ali Vaez, Jake Dirden takes on Bull Bronson, and "The Man Of Tomorrow" Daniel Eads faces a tough test in the form of veteran Flash Flanagan.

Saturday the 27th has SICW in Fairmont City as well as MMWA in Herculaneum. Nothing has been announced for SICW yet; MMWA has a battle royal for a Heavyweight Title shot later in the night, as well as defenses of the Jr. Heavyweight and T.V. Titles. I'm leaning toward SICW since it's closer, but that's just me...

October has six shows on the docket, depending on the choice you make for Saturday the 11th. The month kicks off with St. Louis Anarchy in Alton on Friday the 3rd, headlined by Gerald James defending the Heavyweight Title against Angelus Layne in a best-of-three-falls match. That match stemmed from some controversy with the referee's call in one of the Lethal Lottery matches a few months ago. Layne will have a busy night as she'll be getting married to Brandon Espinosa in a ceremony conducted by Darin Corbin...yup. As for other matches, Ring Of Honor Heavyweight Champion "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin faces top SLA contender Davey Vega, Kyle O'Reilly faces Jojo Bravo, and A.C.H. takes on the SLA-debuting Cedric Alexander. Others making their SLA debut in October include west-coast standout Trevor Lee and "The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan.

Dynamo returns to Fenton on Saturday the 4th, then will be back in Glen Carbon on the 11th...but the 11th will be a crowded evening. MMWA has their monthly show at South Broadway that night and SICW has a show in Swansea to benefit the area fire department. Closing out the weekend, High Risk Wrestling has their second show on Sunday the 12th in Belleville with several big names already announced. Those names include Elgin, ROH Tag Champs reDRagon(Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish), "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon, and EVOLVE/Dragon Gate USA standout Uhaa Nation.

Wrapping up October, SICW is back in East Carondelet on the 18th with The One Man Gang appearing(no word on the status of Akeem The African Dream for the event) and PWCS has their "Stage Three" show in Granite City on the 25th.

Wrestling fans live in a time period in which their hobby is more accessible than ever before. Whether it's through the WWE Network(I forget how much it costs) or through other avenues, there's no longer an excuse to restrict yourself to what's on television. If the mainstream products aren't to your liking for your own reasons, then give something else a try. Independent wrestling gives you a different perspective on the business and fans are a lot closer to the action...the possibility of first-hand interaction with the wrestlers and manager(just ask Travis Cook) is much greater. Speaking for myself, I just have a better time watching indy wrestling than I do watching WWE or TNA these days...all I recommend is that you give it a shot and see what you think.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.