SICW occasionally ventures outside the friendly confines of East Carondelet; Fairmont City has been an occasional visit on the itinerary. In this case, it was a fundraiser for the local fire department, complete with an appearance by the mascot "Fire Pup".
I only knew one match ahead of time, which was the Hatton-Flanagan title match. The night was shaping up to be full with two other shows in the area on Saturday night, but the MMWA event in Herculaneum was cancelled. Larry Matysik estimated the attendance to be around 300; I had the privilege of talking with Larry for a good portion of the evening. The audience was into the show for the most part, from what I could tell.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Keith Smith Jr. and Jay King.
Shiloh Jonze vs. "Dead Sexy" Daniel Gunner: This was a battle of SICW newcomers. Jonze competes for Ohio Valley Wrestling and debuted at last week's show; Gunner made his first appearance at the July event. Seemed like a slight style clash but they worked together well enough. Jonze won with his Trouble In Paradise-style flying roundhouse kick in 5:45.
"The Man Of Tomorrow" Daniel Eads vs. "Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook): These two have faced each other in the past, but Kasa's no longer Classic Champion and Eads appears to be on the rise. Eads has a good look and good size; he's a little over a year into his wrestling career so he's still in the process of gaining experience. I'm not sure if this was his longest match to date, but I imagine it was close. On the other side of things, Kasa's had some long matches in the past(including his 40-minute best-of-three-falls encounter with Jake Dirden). Kasa stalled a lot in the early minutes of the bout and Travis got in a cheapshot or two...bwahahaha. Eads rallied and landed a Superman Punch near the end, but Kasa rolled out of the ring and the fifteen-minute time limit expired.
Promoter Herb Simmons granted the wishes of Eads and the fans for five more minutes...Kasa and Travis protested but Kasa did re-enter the ring and the bell rang for the restart. However, Kasa immediately bailed out of the ring and walked back to the dressing room area with his manager...Eads won by countout (didn't get a time on the restart), but I suspect these two will meet again.
Red River Jack(w/ "The Famous" Big Daddy) vs. Bubba Trohl: Had never seen Trohl before; he's a big guy, almost as big as Bull Bronson. If the masked man IS Ron Powers as Ricky Cruz claimed last week, he's dropped some weight and is competing in more standard wrestling gear(after wrestling in jeans and a T-shirt in recent years). It speaks volumes that I was actively looking for Jack to be Ron Powers and had to second-guess myself upon first viewing. Jack gave Trohl a guided tour of the building, including a short trip into the wall followed by a beatdown with a steel chair. Trohl made a brief comeback but got caught with the Double-R-J(Diamond Cutter) for the finish in 4:08.
Intermission numero uno took place here...yes, I keep track of these things so other people don't have to. Shut up.
Farmer Billy Hills vs. Mohamad Ali Vaez: M.A.V. relieved Drew of the microphone to spout off in not-'Murican(Farsi?); Hills responded by requesting an interpreter. This was a far better and more competitive match than I was expecting; Hills even hit a swandive headbutt at one point(with Vaez rolling to the ropes to escape defeat). Hill went to the top rope again, but Vaez avoided the move on the second attempt and the Akbar Clutch(cobra clutch from the camel clutch position) sealed the deal at 6:54.
Big Jim Hoffarth & The Tornado vs. "The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz & Waco: Hoffarth & Waco's history is well-documented. Tornado was an unknown masked competitor...I was hoping for a discus punch a la Kerry Von Erich, but no go. About halfway through the match, Tornado suffered a freak injury when he jumped off the second rope and went down clutching his leg. Tornado was assisted to the backstage area as Hoffarth attempted to fight on his own...Big Daddy had been scouting the match and offered the services of Red River Jack as an impromptu substitute partner. Herb Simmons made it so and Jack was allowed to tag into the match, renewing hostilities with Ricky Cruz. Jack took out Waco with the Double-R-J before Cactus-Clotheslining Cruz and himself out of play. There was a minor snafu with the finish as I don't think Hoffarth was legal when he big-splashed Waco for the pin, but such is life. The good guys won in 9:43.
Intermission number two was here...
Heath Hatton vs. Flash Flanagan for the Classic Title: Flanagan got Hatton's attention last week with his assault on Heath's protege Daniel Eads. Flash has been near the top of the rankings for most of his SICW stint; Flanagan actually pinned Ricky Cruz in a title match at the Argosy Casino in Alton about a year and a half ago, but the decision was reversed. This was a solid matchup that did a good job of setting up future developments. Referee Keith Smith Jr. was knocked down and Flanagan bashed Hatton with his kendo stick(breaking the stick in the process!). Flanagan covered and Keith recovered to count three in 11:01, seemingly making Flanagan the new champion.
BUT WAIT~! Daniel Eads came out to tell the official what Flash had done...on top of that, Keith Jr. noticed the proverbial smoking gun in the form of the splintered kendo stick. Thus the decision was reversed and Hatton retained via DQ; for the second time, Flanagan was denied the championship after nearly winning it through underhanded means. Flanagan took out his frustration on everyone in sight(including the ref!) and Ken Kasa joined in the beatdown until Hatton and Eads cleared the ring...nicely setting up the tag match at the next East Carondelet show.
It's interesting to note that Hatton's been more of an underdog as champion than his predecessors. He nearly lost clean to Ricky Cruz as Ricky had him pinned with the ref down, then Red River Jack interfered to cost Cruz the match. He edged out a countout win over Kasa last week, then was pinned by Flanagan here before the decision was reversed. It's a change of pace from previous champions, especially the ones of the fan favorite persuasion.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson & "Dirdey" Jake Dirden vs. Bull Bronson & Ax (Allwardt)(w/ Travis Cook): Gary and Dirden have had recent issues with Bronson as well as the Travis Cook Organization in general. This was a good way to cap off the night with a decisive face win; Dirden and Bronson took their fight to the floor and Jackson pinned Ax with a sunset flip(OLDSCHOOL~!) in 10:13.
I don't know any matches for the Swansea show at the moment, but several matches are already set for East Carondelet on the 18th: Hatton/Eads vs. Kasa/Flanagan, Hoffarth vs. Cruz, Jackson vs. Vaez, and Red River Jack vs. Bronson.
Tomorrow night is Dynamo at Off Broadway; the only announced match is Ricky Cruz defending the Heavyweight Title against Gary Jackson in a no-DQ match(stemming from Ricky's cheap victory over Gary at the previous Off Broadway event).
A very busy October looks like this:
Friday 10/3: SLA in Alton, IL
Saturday 10/4: DPW in Fenton, MO
Saturday 10/11: DPW in Glen Carbon, IL; SICW in Swansea, IL; MMWA in St. Louis, MO(South Broadway)
Sunday 10/12: HRW in Belleville, IL
Saturday 10/18: SICW in East Carondelet, IL (One Man Gang appearing)
Saturday 10/25: PWCS in Granite City, IL
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
No comments:
Post a Comment