Dynamo Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Stratford Inn in Fenton, Missouri.

My plan for Saturday was to attend my twenty-year high school reunion in downtown Belleville and then go straight to the wrestling show.  For the record, the Chevy Aveo can go a lot faster than you'd think.  I arrived at the venue at 8:00 on the dot...it'd be nice if every other plan in my life worked out that well.

As previously noted, Dynamo is building a good audience in Fenton...quite a few people were there to see one particular wrestler, but unfortunately a lot of those fans left after his match.

Wrestling commentaries can be a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.  The in-ring content around here tends to be solid at worst, mostly varying in terms of nitpicks about style, selling, psychology, etc.  As such, I'd feel repetitive to just say "good match" over and over despite the fact that it's usually the case.  Other people might notice little things that I wouldn't think too hard about; that can come up when I'm watching with people with a better eye for those details(usually people who are or were wrestlers themselves).

This was an unusual instance where no matches were announced beforehand; when a promotion runs three shows in two weeks, I imagine things tend to get a bit hectic.  There was a vague announcement that the Tag Team Title situation would be clarified; The Bite Club had earned a title shot at the previous Fenton show, but an injury to Rocket Mapache put that opportunity in jeopardy.

Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your secondary announcer was Luke Roberts, your timekeeper was Ben Simon, and your referees were Jay King, Richard White, and Patrick Hook(w/ bowtie).

Brandon Aarons vs. "The New Hotness" Danny Adams:  I'd probably be beating a dead horse to bring up my desire for a secondary singles title in Dynamo; there are a lot of midcard guys without much to do.  I had a conversation about it with a friend recently; my push was for a revival of the Light Heavyweight Championship, but a) it can be tough to overcome the stigma of being labeled as a "little guy" and b) a lot of the guys who compete for the main singles belt are light heavyweights themselves.  Just a random fantasy-booker thought on my part.  It's odd to think of Aarons as a "veteran" but, other than a few layoffs since he started, he's been doing this for quite a while.  It's been refreshing lately to see more outright heelish wins...if a heel wins cleanly, then what's there to hate?  On that note, Adams did the old-school double-leg Flair pin with feet on the ropes to win in 7:40(CHEAT TO WIN~!).

"Night Train/Great One/Gorgeous" Gary Jackson vs. Barackus:  This was a change of pace to say the least.  Barackus dominated the matchup with bearhugs and the like, putting Gary in the role of a major underdog despite his experience.  Of course, that experience would pay off as he managed to outmaneuver the big man, getting the rollup pin in 6:55.

Executive Director Mark Bland came out and introduced The Bite Club...Mapache had a cast on his broken wrist and Bland said he couldn't compete tonight.  That brought out Travis Cook to protest the Black Hand Warriors' loss of the Tag Titles in the four-way dance from a few months ago, saying they were never directly beaten for the belts and should get them back.  Mapache spoke up for his team, saying Jackal shouldn't be penalized for his partner's injury...as a result, it was set up that Jackal would get a substitute partner to challenge for the Tag Team Titles later in the evening.  I had my guess as to the identity of said partner...

Mike Outlaw vs. "The" Evan Morris vs. "The Alternative" Brandon Gallagher:  Outlaw was fighting the numbers game against two heels; they ganged up on him right out of the gate.  Of course THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE so the alliance didn't last.  Outlaw's been impressive in his short career; I look forward to seeing how far he goes.  Morris is settling into his heel role; I like the ring introduction that proclaims him to be "former prom king".  Gallagher remains solid but hasn't had much to do since the feud with Dan Walsh ended.  Nice finishing sequence saw Gallagher catch Morris on the top rope with a belly-to-belly superplex, but Outlaw jumped off the adjacent turnbuckle with the Macho elbow to pin Morris in 7:39.

Outtkast vs. "Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook):  Outtkast has had issues with the Travis Cook Organization in general, particularly the Black Hand Warriors.  This match was actually scheduled for an SICW show a few months ago, but it didn't take place due to Outtkast's absence.  I think the last time they had fought was in GCW, to put that in perspective.  Even after all this time, it's cool to see Outtkast pull off some of the complex aerial maneuvers he does; he nailed the Sami Zayn-style wristlock ropewalk into a flying tornado DDT at one point.  Travis(still limping from his devastating massage parlor accident) played a role in the outcome, crotching Outtkast on the top rope with his cane.  The John Wu Dropkick followed and Kasa picked up the win in 10:22.

Intermission, time to unwind...haven't sampled much of Stratford's food menu yet, but I've heard good things.

High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb) vs. The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson & David DeLorean)(w/ Travis Cook):  This would be Part MCMXVIII in the ongoing series between these two teams; they've been feuding in both Dynamo and World League Wrestling for quite a while now, including several tag title switches in WLW.  They had another really strong matchup; Magnuson executed the first moonsault I'd ever seen him do.  Gamble hit a 450 Splash on DeLorean that looked scary.  At that point, Travis caused a ruckus and Magnuson got in a low blow, then rolled up Gamble with the tights for the cheap win in 17:41(!).  Kasa hit the ring to assist in the post-match damage-doing, bringing out Outtkast to even the sides.  Mark Bland ordered a ten-man elimination tag match for the Glen Carbon show with the Travis Cook Organization against "Team Dynamo"...as made official in the past day or so, it'll be Kasa, Magnuson, DeLorean, and The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby) against Billy McNeil, Outtkast, Shorty Biggs, Gamble, and Webb.

"The Bosnian Warchild" Spi-Ral vs. Elvis Aliaga:  Both guys are establishing their roles lately:  Spi-Ral's been a face in his two most recent outings and Aliaga has trended back to his heel roots.  Thought these two worked well together and Spi-Ral bused out some of his flashier offense.  Of course, they call it "high risk" for a reason and Aliaga avoided a springboard 450 Splash, leading to Elvis getting the win with the T.C.B.(Falcon Arrow) in 11:10.

Heavyweight Champion "The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz & Brandon Espinosa vs. "Dirdey" Jake Dirden & Jackal(w/ Rocket Mapache) for the Tag Team Titles:  Mapache came out with Jackal but didn't stay at ringside; Lucy Mendez was booked elsewhere and wasn't in the building for this matchup.  After Dirden's rant on the Ringsyders podcast about how Cruz has been ducking him in Dynamo, it was a good opportunity to renew hostilities between the two.  Dirden & Jackal actually teamed up once in 2012, very early in Dirden's career; they defeated the formidable duo of Dash Rando & El Sanchez.  Of course, Cruz & Espinosa elected to isolate Jackal for most of the bout...then Dirden cleaned house once he finally got the tag.  Dirden tagged Jackal back into the match and it didn't seem like a good idea, but miscommunication led to Espy accidentally knocking his partner down.  As a result, Dirden and Jackal were able to take out Espinosa with a combination chokeslam(by Dirden)/powerbomb(by Jackal), giving Jackal the pinfall and earning the makeshift team the Tag  Team Titles in 11:58!  The Dynamo tag belts have been hot potatoes this year...and I don't know if this particular duo will hold the belts for long, but at least the complexity of the Heavyweight Champion also being one-half of the Tag Champs is over.  Cruz & Espy lost the belts in their first defense, in fact...

Post-match, the Cruz/Espinosa alliance melted down...it wasn't too stable in the first place, when you think about it.  That led to Elvis Aliaga making a return appearance and joining forces with Espinosa to beat down the champion Cruz.  Doubt that's a face turn for Cruz, but the team with Espy was simply a short-lived alliance of convenience.  They finished the job with a nice double-team combo(Russian legsweep by Aliaga/flying knee strike by Espy)...and I could see them in tag title contention in the very near future.

Thus ended that run of three shows in five days...and next weekend will be a doubleheader for me as well.  Three shows will take place on Saturday night and it'll be a tough choice for any area fan:  Dynamo in Glen Carbon with the ten-man elimination tag match, MMWA at South Broadway in St. Louis with the Espinosa-Da'Marius Jones 60-Minute Ironman Match, and SICW in Swansea.  High Risk Wrestling has its second show next Sunday at the Bel-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville with Michael Elgin vs. Uhaa Nation and Ace Steel vs. Arik Cannon on the card as well as A.C.H., reDRagon, and many more.

The rest of October:
-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.