PWCS Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Pro Wrestling Championship Series show at the YMCA in Granite City, Illinois.

My drive to the show was eventful by itself; Highway 64 was down to one lane for a good stretch and then I was stopped by a train for a minute or so. That added about 15-20 minutes to my usual trip to Granite City, but at least I made it to the show on time. The turnout was decent for the smaller venue and the fans were into the show.

Starting scoreboard: Ego Busters 5-1, Blacklist 3-3, Team Anarchy 2-4, Resurgence 2-4. The top two teams would meet in the team championship match at the next show on January 10th...the Ego Busters had a comfortable lead, but an 0-3 showing on this night could have potentially pushed them out of the running. Oddly, all of the team matches on this night were Ego Busters vs. Team Anarchy and Blacklist vs. Resurgence; not sure if there was an explanation for that setup on one of the YouTube shows.

I didn't know the ring announcer's name; your referees were Thomas Ninos(?), Jay King, and Brian Stoltz.  (EDIT: Thomas Munos.)

For the record, I attempted to time the matches for myself...but I whiffed on the start button during the third bout, so that's why I didn't have a precise time on that one.

Sir Isaac vs. Code Name-Dangerous Deveroux: Isaac was a late replacement for Zakk Sawyers who had another booking. The full bodysuit and mask make it difficult to deduce Deveroux's identity, so I couldn't say if it's someone totally new or an established person in an alternate character. Deveroux targeted Isaac's leg and Isaac did a good job of selling the injury for the duration of the bout. It can be easy to ignore limb work during the comeback phase of a matchup and chalk it up to adrenaline, but that can invalidate the whole segment of a match when the heel is in control. Deveroux won after blocking a powerbomb, rolling up Isaac with a handful of tights in 5:53.

Outtkast(Blacklist) vs. "Risky Business" Everett Connors(Resurgence): Blacklist/Resurgence was essentially face-vs.-face, something that can be a tough order of business. Connors was the obvious underdog against the more experienced Outtkast, but he still had a good showing in this one. Jojo Bravo occasionally popped out of the entranceway to cheerlead for his Blacklist teammate, but the fan support was somewhat divided. Outtkast won with the Case Study in 6:54...but the members of the Ego Busters attacked Outtkast after the match, then dished out a beating on Makaze and Jojo when they tried to intervene. Greg Jovi made it clear that they were targeting their nearest competitors on the scoreboard and attempting to solidify their lead. (Blacklist 4-3, Resurgence 2-5)

Jeff Gant vs. "The Money" Matt Cage vs. "The Alternative" Brandon Gallagher: Gant competes for Anarchy Championship Wrestling in Texas and has appeared for St. Louis Anarchy a few times; he was a late addition to the scheduled Cage-Gallagher "free agent showcase". As it turned out, this made him the underdog face against two heels. It went about eight minutes or so, ending with Evan Gelistico & Pierre Abernathy attacking everyone for the Sportz Entertainment Finish(err, no-contest). The deal was that Davey Vega set the roster for Team Anarchy on this night and that ticked off Pierre(allegedly the team captain) and his partner Gelistico. They voiced their displeasure with being left off the card and Pierre said that Vega couldn't lead the team better than he could... (EDIT: YouTube video of the match is up, so I got the match time as 8:41.)

"The Ace Of Anarchy" Davey Vega(Team Anarchy) vs. Brandon Espinosa(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters): This was one of the matches I was particularly looking forward to; I'm pretty sure it was their first one-on-one meeting. Evan and Pierre sat with the ring announcer/video commentator to watch their stablemate's match...looking back at the record book, Vega was 1-0 in PWCS(prior to this bout) while Pierre is 0-2 and Evan is 0-1. On the other side of things, Espy was 2-0 going into this matchup. As expected, they had a really good matchup with a lot of near-falls for each man. Vega won with a brainbuster onto the knee in 10:26. (Team Anarchy 3-4, Ego Busters 5-2)

They unveiled the team championship trophy in an in-ring segment with Jay Beaman(host of their YouTube show) and Greg Jovi. Jovi is the real-life promoter of PWCS(explaining his presence) but is also the heel manager of the Ego Busters, so he stuck with the character and vowed that his team would bring home the trophy. After that, he hit Beaman with a low blow for the hell of it.

The Viking War Party("The American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "The Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell)(Team Anarchy) vs. Gary Jay & "Walking Reality" Dan Walsh(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters): This was the PWCS debut for the Vikings and they did their usual chair-throwing entrance...gotta watch out in a confined space like this particular venue. They even tried to roll Hardcore Andy(acting as ringside security) into the ring at one point...heh. Jovi was a bit more actively involved than usual; at one point, he pulled the referee out of the ring to stop a potential pin after Parnell hit a frog splash on Walsh. That seemed to indicate the Ego Busters stealing a win and they nearly did so, but the Vikings came back and Parnell pinned Walsh after a chokebreaker/second-rope double-stomp combo in 14:09. (Team Anarchy 4-4, Ego Busters 5-3)

"Dirdey" Jake Dirden(Resurgence) vs. Jojo Bravo(w/ Outtkast)(Blacklist): Hello, David vs. Goliath formula. Dirden tends to gravitate toward the subtle heel role in a face/face match with a smaller opponent, as he did here. This happened despite a heelish move on the part of the Blacklist: Jojo's "unity exercise" on this night consisted of Outtkast attempting a pre-match attack and being thrown out of the ring. Outtkast didn't get actively involved once the bell rang; Jojo's great in the underdog role and was very entertaining in his offensive flurries. Bravo survived several of Dirden's big moves, including a chokeslam. However, he overstepped his bounds by thinking he could hit the Samurai Driver(WA-SHING~!) on the big man; Dirden grabbed him in the Asiatic Spike and that was all she wrote in 9:21. SPORTSMANSHIP~! ensued after the match. (Resurgence 3-5, Blacklist 4-4)

Makaze(Blacklist) vs. Steven Kennedy(Resurgence): The Resurgence team was on the bubble here and needed a minor miracle to reach the championship round. Makaze entered the match with a limp after the earlier attack by the Ego Busters. Kennedy started off technical, but he eventually went after the leg due to the stakes involved in the matchup. I guess that made Kennedy the heel by default, but it was understandable given the circumstances. Makaze won with the Blizzard Suplex out of nowhere(Northern Lights suplex with a leg hook like a Perfectplex) in 9:42 and eliminated the Resurgence team from contention in the process. Kennedy said he wasn't happy about his 1-2 record in PWCS, but congratulated Makaze and said he'll do better the next time around. (Blacklist 5-4, Resurgence 3-6)

Mat Fitchett(Team Anarchy) vs. Christian Rose(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters): I noted that a Fitchett win would result in a three-way tie for first with all three remaining stables having 5-4 records. I wasn't entirely clear on how the championship teams would be decided in that case, but PWCS posted a Facebook blog about the different situations that could end the season. From my understanding, the Ego Busters would have been eliminated due to the stables' season records against each other; that put the previous frontrunners in a position to go 0-3 for the night and slide out of contention as a result.

Fitchett and Rose crossed paths in St. Louis Anarchy recently; there's SOME angle crossover from that promotion as Pierre assembled his team from their roster. Unfortunately, internal conflict meant that they weren't quite as successful as they would have liked. For his part, Rose was initially a member of the Blacklist stable, but was said to have taken a payoff from the Ego Busters to abandon his team at the first show. Rose was scheduled to team with Outtkast against Pierre and Alex Castle at Stage One, but Outtkast had to fight alone in a handicap situation (taking advantage of miscommunication to get a flash pin).

At any rate, these guys had a really good matchup. Still not sure about Fitchett's overall status as he simply promised to complete the season for PWCS and has been wrestling for promotions elsewhere in the country. Evan and Pierre tried to interfere against their own stablemate but Vega put a stop to it before they could do any damage. However, it was Jovi's involvement that made the difference as he distracted the referee, allowing Rose to get in a mule kick to the Universal Weak Point. That allowed Rose to hit his Go 2 Sleep variant(Ride The Lightning) for the win in 11:48. (Ego Busters 6-3, Team Anarchy 4-5)

Long story short, the championship finale will be Blacklist vs. Ego Busters in an eight-man elimination tag match on January 10th. Makaze/Outtkast/Jojo are the mainstays for Blacklist, but will the fourth member be Nate Redwing or someone else? The Ego Busters seem set as Gary Jay/Walsh/Rose/Espinosa, but they could also use Jeremy Wyatt...decisions, decisions.

Dynamo Pro Wrestling is next on the agenda; unfortunately, the promotion was the victim of a major theft recently as their ring, trailer, and guardrails were stolen. Their remnants were reportedly "permanently mangled and destroyed for scrap". Not sure what I could say beyond the obvious: It sucks and hopefully the person or people responsible are brought to justice.

The rest of the year looks like this:
-Saturday 11/1: DPW in Fenton, MO
-Saturday 11/8: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 11/15: SICW in East Carondelet, IL (Marty Jannetty); WLW in Troy, MO
-Saturday 11/22: MMWA-SICW in Cahokia, IL (John Blackheart/Big Momma Love benefit)

-Friday 12/5: SLA in Alton, IL (Yuletide Terror); PWE in Pontoon Beach, IL
-Saturday 12/6: Dynamo in Fenton, MO
-Saturday 12/13: SICW in East Carondelet, IL; MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Sunday 12/28: HRW in Belleville, IL

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.