DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
HRW was criticized a bit for higher ticket prices($15 when the average admission around this area is around ten dollars)...and this show raised the ticket price to $25 with the higher-level talent on the show. More than a few people were wondering about how the show would draw...but the attendance was around a hundred(ballpark guess on my part) and it turned out pretty well, all things considered.
The show lineup held up for the most part. A rematch between Justice Jones and Samson Walker had been set up, but Walker's name was absent when the full lineup was released and Jones was in a six-way matchup. Shane Hollister is out with an ankle injury(though, from the sound of his promo at AAW on Saturday, he's NOT retiring just yet). That turned the match into a five-way bout...then Justice Jones didn't appear at the show and it became a four-corner matchup.
Your ring announcer was Brian Thompson, your referees were Brian Stoltz and Nick Ridenour, and your video-on-demand commentators were Brian Thompson and Steve Murphy. I was switched to ringside photography while Ben Simon focused on videotaping duty.
Moose(w/ Magic Man) vs. Tony Kozina vs. Christian Rose vs. Blake Edward Belakis: Didn't catch Rose's current nickname. Fans more familiar with him have taken to heckling him by calling him a "big stupid bird"...I have no idea where that came from. I made a short list of wrestlers I'd like to see more often in 2015 and Belakis was on that list; he's more of a central Illinois guy and has been branching out a lot recently(Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE, Full Impact Pro in Florida). The other three participants in the matchup took the immediate tact of ganging up on Moose...that worked momentarily and that was about it. As is oft the case in matchups such as this, any temporary allegiances broke down when it came down to the honor of the winning pinfall. Moose speared Rose for the pin in 5:45; it was a fine entertaining opener with the good guy winning to start things on a positive note.
"The Anarchist" Arik Cannon vs. Jonathan Gresham: Gresham established himself as the heel with a nice bit of possum-playing. Gresham is one of those guys who I haven't seen too often; he's obviously talented but lack of size has probably held him back(a quick search of the Internets has him at 5'4"). Even though the rules are relaxed in HRW, the refs tend to fall back on rule-enforcing habits; because of that, Gresham still felt like hanging onto the official so he wouldn't see a momentum-shifting mule kick to the Universal Weak Point. Gresham followed that up with an Oklahoma roll for the three-count in 11:24.
"The Kentucky Gentleman" Chuck Taylor vs. Jigsaw: It seemed odd for Taylor to be the fan favorite and Jigsaw to be the heel. Jigsaw was a LOT more vocal than I was expecting as he was talking trash right out of the gate. Taylor was once (in)famous for scaring kids and I joked at the time that booking Taylor as a face was like booking Chris Hero and telling him "no cravates"; it was just what he did. Jigsaw had a cup of coffee in TNA as Rubix and has been a big part of CHIKARA in recent years. Chuckie T has been all over the place, including CHIKARA and Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE. Fine matchup, though it was one of the shorter bouts of the night; Taylor won with a pop-up sitout powerbomb in 6:13.
The Rock 'N' Shock Connection(Bolt Brady & "The Yoga Monster" Mike Sydal) vs. The New Midnight Express(w/ Beautiful Bobby Eaton): To be fair, Eaton WAS a heel for most of his career so it's only natural for a "New Midnight Express" to also be rulebreakers. Eaton's new team was revealed to be "Showtime" Bradley Charles(as "Bad Brad") and Tyler Cook(as "Tenacious Tyler"); I hadn't seen Cook in several years, but he's been a regular for Metro Pro and has also competed for WLW. SBC and Cook have been both tag partners and rivals in their careers; this was my first time seeing them as a team. Bolt worked most of the bout before finally going for the hot tag...and then Sydal dropped off the ring apron. Sydal walked to the other side of the ring, shook hands with Bobby, and then joined Brad & Tyler in attacking Brady...well, they ARE all Kansas City guys. That brought out Moose and Magic Man and the match was turned into an impromptu six-man tag on the fly...
Moose, Bolt Brady, & Magic Man vs. The New Midnight Express(Bad Brad, Tenacious Tyler, & Mike Sydal)(w/ Beautiful Bobby Eaton): Magic Man briefly tagged into the match and hit a tornado DDT on Sydal, then Moose cleaned house...but then Bolt tagged himself back into the match. That was a mistake as Bad Brad rolled him up with a handful of tights in a total match time of 10:59 (there was no bell to indicate a no-contest for the original match so I just counted it all as one match).
Cue intermission~! I'm getting too old to be on my feet for an entire wrestling show...
The Colony(Fire Ant & Silver Ant) vs. reDRagon(Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish)(w/ Tony Kozina) for the vacant Tag Team Titles: The Tag Title vacancy was a surprise; The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) defeated Team Overkill(Matt Cage & Christian Rose) at the first HRW show to become the first titleholders, but they hadn't been back to the promotion since then. Of course, the "thirty-day rule" tends to be flexible in wrestling (i.e. Brock Lesnar has gone far longer without a WWE Title defense than Daniel Bryan did). O'Reilly and Fish had their Ring Of Honor and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts with them; they're three-time ROH Tag Champs and second only to Jay & Mark Briscoe in that department.
For those unfamiliar with CHIKARA lore, there have been several different incarnations of The Colony. The group underwent a few changes as Worker Ant and Soldier Ant had their careers ended(though Soldier Ant recently returned as a member of The Flood); Carpenter Ant was a part of the group but turned out to be a saboteur, revealing himself to be Pinkie Sanchez. There have also been rival ant groups like The Swarm and The Colony Xtreme Force, but Swarm member assailANT would join the group in good standing and become the second Worker Ant. Fire Ant and Soldier Ant were Campeones De Parejas and won King Of Trios with Silver Ant(then known as Green Ant) in 2011.
At any rate, I'm pretty sure this was the first meeting between these two teams. It was really good and realistically could have gone either way, if only as it related to the mindset of "which team is more likely to be back for the next show?" Kozina interfered a few times, but the fan support was still divided between the two teams. After several close near-falls for each side, Fish finally got the pin on Silver Ant after the Chasing The Dragon(brainbuster/head kick combo) in 17:15. O'Reilly and Fish carried a lot of hardware out of the ring last night...
"Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Uhaa Nation(w/ Magic Man): This was a rematch from the previous show when Elgin scored a hard-fought win. It was essentially face-vs.-face...however, the New Midnight Express came out to ringside midway through the match. This distracted everyone involved, then they made their move as Sydal pulled the ref out of the ring as Elgin had Nation in the Sharpshooter. Presumably they were getting revenge for Magic Man sticking his nose into their business earlier in the night. It was officially a no-contest at the 19:00 mark...then all hell broke loose as the heels attacked both men. Moose ran in for an assist, but then turned on Nation out of nowhere with a spear. He wasn't done as he chokeslammed Magic Man...promoter Frank Thurman tried to restore order, but Eaton punched him out and then cut off his ponytail. Bolt Brady finally ran him to help, but the heels' work was done and they took their leave.
A.C.H. vs. Ricochet for the Heavyweight Title: Was seriously geeked for most of this card but especially this matchup. Ricochet played the subtle heel even though he had his share of fans in attendance. A.C.H. gave Ricochet a late Christmas present in the form of a custom action figure...it was...interesting. Anywho, you really had to see this matchup for yourself; if you weren't at the show, invest in the video-on-demand once it's available online. A.C.H. picked up the win with the Hero's Grip(German suplex) in 17:17...good times.
That'll wrap up my 2014 in rasslin...I attended a grand total of 57 shows in this calendar year. I missed a couple of shows due to my unscheduled hospital stints and there were several evenings where I had to choose from the two or even three shows on the same night. All in all, it's a good time to be a wresting fan in the St. Louis area...woo.
January looks like this so far:
-Saturday 1/3: Dynamo in Fenton, MO
-Saturday 1/10: PWCS in Granite City, IL; MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 1/17: SICW in East Carodelet, IL
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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