Attendance was looking rough at the start of this event, but several more people entered the building and it turned into a decent little turnout. The nice thing about the smaller venue is that the crowd noise sounds really good regardless of the numbers (in contrast to the Sports Academy where a lot of it is lost in the spacious building).
I really like the Off Broadway venue for wrestling shows and have heard it compared to the old GCW garage/training center in terms of intimacy. The Tuesday-evening timeslot is tough for drawing fans, but I imagine the building has bands booked for the weekends. Would be nice to see this venue build an audience as it's a really fun place to watch wrestling shows.
Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your timekeeper/Stag-merch-thrower was Luke Roberts, and your referees were Jay King and Patrick Hook(who's adopted retro officating attire lately, complete with bowtie). Your sponsors were Stag Beer and Strange Donut, but sadly there were no free samples on this night.
Brandon Aarons & Mike Outlaw vs. "The Madman" Paco Gonzalez & "The New Hotness" Danny Adams: The show lineup was posted on Monday evening and had this as two singles matches(Aarons vs. Outlaw and Gonzalez vs. Adams), but it was changed to a tag match to presumably streamline the show. The tone was set with several unwanted tags on the part of the Gonzalez/Adams team...the proteges of Michael Elgin have been opponents for most of their short careers. They got it together(barely) long enough to isolate Aarons for a few minutes, but Outlaw eventually got the hot tag. Paco turned it around and went to the top rope, but Adams was pushed into the ropes and accidentally knocked his partner off-balance. Aarons took out Adams and Outlaw finished off Paco with the Macho Elbow in 8:16...Paco and Adams argued all the way to the backstage area.
"The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs vs. Michael Magnuson(w/ Travis Cook): The feuding Bumrush Brothers and Black Hand Warriors faced off in one-on-one matches on this show. Travis was limping around with a cane, claiming an accident at a local "massage parlor". (Yes, I know how dangerous those...massage parlors...can be.) These two know each other well, as you might expect...going back even further into the history books, Travis managed Shorty for a short time in Gateway Championship Wrestling. Travis got in his cheapshots, as you might expect...this led to the finish as Travis whacked Shorty with the cane behind the referee's back. Magnuson capitalized by hitting a TKO for the win in 10:47.
Executive Director Mark Bland came out to hype the remainder of the show...not much of note here, really. At least he wasn't interrupted this time...
"The Bosnian Warchild" Spi-Ral vs. "The Alternative" Brandon Gallagher: It seems like they're still figuring out whether Spi-Ral would work better as a face or a heel as he's been both in a short period of time (depending on his opponent). He was definitely the fan favorite against established heel Gallagher on this night. Thought this was a solid matchup; interested to see what they do with Spi-Ral from here. Spi-Ral picked up the win after a splash off the top rope in 11:08 as Gallagher's slump seemingly continued...
Jackal vs. Tag Team Champion Brandon Espinosa: Rocket Mapache is reportedly out of action for a short time(no word on if rabies is involved), so Jackal was flying solo. This was another singles match between members of warring tag teams; The Bite Club beat the Black Hand Warriors to become top contenders to the Tag Titles held by Heavyweight Champion Ricky Cruz and Espinosa. I'm pretty sure this was the first one-on-one meeting between these two, though they crossed paths in the four-way dance in which Cruz & Espy won the belts. They seemed to work well together and Jackal scored the upset win with the Killswitch #2(turnbuckle-walk Tomakazi) in 8:29; this prompted a discussion between myself and Drew Abbenhaus about whether this made Jackal the number-one contender to the MMWA Heavyweight Title. :)
Side note: Jackal's original GCW finisher was the Sliced Bread #2 and he called it the Killswitch at the time. He would eventually switch to his current finisher and dubbed it the Killswitch #2. This would get awkward around the time that Christian returned to WWE from TNA and started calling his Tomakazi/Unprettier finisher..."The Killswitch".
Cue intermission since I'm apparently noting that in these commentaries now...
Outtkast vs. David DeLorean(w/ Travis Cook): This would be the other half of the BRBs vs. BHWs feud, naturally. Outtkast rushed the ring to spare us our second extended introductory spiel from Travis Cook in the same night. They told a really good story with DeLorean focusing on Kast's arm, resulting in a few spots where Kast couldn't do some of his usual moves due to the pain. Even though Outtkast has dropped weight recently, it's still cool to see some of the aerial moves he can do. Kast was dead-set on defying the odds by going for his corkscrew moonsault/senton THREE times in one match; DeLorean cut him off twice, but the third time was the charm as he finally hit the move(second time this year!). Travis Cook argued with the ref to divert him from counting the pin attempt...Outtkast got a hold of him, stepped aside in time for DeLorean to NEARLY collide with his manager, then rolled up DeLorean for the win with a handful of tights in 10:07(fight fire with fire~!). Well played.
"Dirdey" Jake Dirden vs. "Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook): Dirden's entrance cut off Travis' extended intro and it turned into a verbal duel over their respective merchandise; one young lady at ringside ended up with a Dirdey T-shirt and another had the "I'm A Travis Cook Guy" shirt. Dirden threw a shirt out to the female fan, but Travis insisted that his merchandise be paid for...bwahahaha. These two know each other well from their battles over the SICW Classic Title; they also faced each other at a recent Dynamo show. I could see Dirden making another run at Ricky Cruz and the Dynamo Heavyweight Title in the near future. Kasa took out Dirden's leg to keep the big guy down on the mat, but it didn't slow him down for too long. Kasa fought off Dirden's first attempt at the Asiatic Spike and then Travis taped up Kasa's thumb so he could try the hold himself. However, Dirden turned it around and got Kasa in a modified version of the hold for the tapout in 11:56.
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz(w/ Lucy Mendez) vs. "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson, no-DQ match for the Heavyweight Title: Cruz defeated Gary at the previous Off Broadway show through Shenanigans and Tomfoolery with a hint of Dirty Pool. They fought outside the ring in the early minutes of the bout before taking it back inside...not like the referee could do much about such things as chokeholds. Mark Bland was at ringside to oversee the proceedings, though underhanded tactics were as legal as a headlock in this environment. Ricky tried bringing both the title belt and a chair into the ring, resulting in Gary getting a hold of the chair...but before he could use it, Lucy entered the ring with a low blow from behind. Cruz took advance with a DDT on the chair and got the win in 8:23...then had a brief confrontation with Mark Bland over the retrieval of his title belt.
As previously noted, October will be a very busy month around these parts...if you don't feel like going a few entries down on the whiny blog, here's the itinerary:
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
St. Louis Anarchy and High Risk Wrestling have both confirmed that Michael Elgin(who had visa issues recently) will be good to go for their upcoming events.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
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