Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance show at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
It's an old cliche but it's true; there's no substitute for being at a live show. Watching the video is one thing, but the show atmosphere is a lot of fun. I recommend that any wrestling fan attend at least one independent wrestling show just for that experience. Wrestling fans in general are a unique kind of people and that especially holds true on the indy level.
I couldn't judge the attendance from the online video, but the people were making plenty of noise. Of note, there was a VERY loud group of supporters for Kevin Lee Davidson(heel). The full details of the show have been added to the Friday result entry (a few notches down on this here whiny blog)...so I'll keep this to more general commentary as opposed to a blow-by-blow.
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon, your referees were Nick Ridenour & Brian Stoltz.
10-Man Royal Rumble For The Survivor Title: This was the first time in a while that the former Battle Royal Title had been defended in a battle royal format. The hype for the match was that Brian James had to fight through multiple opponents to retain his title, so it was only natural for the random draw(ahem) to put him in the #1 slot. Jimmy D(fresh off his suspension) was #2 but he was eliminated quickly...after that, there were no more eliminations until the final competitor(Kevin Lee Davidson) had entered the ring. The remaining entrants, in order: Laurence Johnson, Sean Orleans(who spent most of the match taking cheapshots and hiding behind his stablemates), Jacko The Clown(fka Jackson Whitechapel), Barackus, Dave Osborne, Tag Team Champion Andrew Wilder, Tag Team Champion Johnathan Zulu, and Davidson.
I noticed a distinct lack of heel presence in this matchup with six faces and four heels...and one of the heels(Jimmy D) was gone early. Barackus was more of a tweener as he's split from The Elitism but doesn't have any friends on the face side either. Davidson immediately made an impact by eliminating both tag champs at the same time. Barackus eliminated Johnson, but J-Mal Swagg distracted the big man and he stepped over the top rope to go after him (thus eliminating himself). Davidson & Orleans double-teamed and eliminated Osborne, then Jacko tossed Orleans and Davidson tossed Jacko in rapid succession. There was some controversy with the finish as both James and Davidson went over the top rope at roughly the same time; from my video's vantage point, it looked like Davidson's feet hit the floor first so James was the rightful winner.
Barackus vs. J-Mal Swagg: The two were still fighting after Barackus' elimination from the Rumble, so Jim Harris decided to just start the singles match. This was more competitive than I was expecting as Swagg was able to take out the leg on a few occasions. J-Mal was able to escape Barackus' clawhold Flatliner a few times due to the leg damage, but the big man finally hit his move for the win.
Andrew Wilder & Johnathan Zulu vs. Draco Verdadero & Flaming Freddie Fury for the Tag Team Titles: Draco looked distinctly...darker than usual. This wasn't set up to be too competitive and it lived up to that standard...a Stunner/inverted neckbreaker combo led to Wilder pinning Fury for the win.
Moondog Rover vs. Kevin Lee Davidson(w/ Sean Orleans) for the T.V. Title: LaMarcus Clinton was lurking in the background for the Elitism matches on this show; he was walking with a cane so I guess he was injured (he was originally scheduled to be in the main event instead of Davidson). Orleans distracted the ref at a timely moment so LMC could interject himself and his cane into the matchup; that led to K.L.D. getting the title-winning pinfall after a big splash. The big man's gonna be a tough one to unseat as champion...
Gary Jackson vs. Jimmy D: This one was pretty straightforward...Gary won with the Texas Cloverleaf and said he was looking for another title shot. Co-Commissioner Jim Harris said he would grant his request once he became the sole Commissioner, something that was on the line in the main event...
Team MMWA vs. Team Elitism: Sean Orleans became Commissioner after The Elitism won a gauntlet match earlier in the year, but promoter Tony Casta named former Comissioner Jim Harris as "Co-Commissioner" to balance out the matchmaking power. Of course, they were not on the same page...to be more accurate, they were in completely different libraries. As a result, this match was set up to decide who would become the lone Comissioner of the MMWA. I've seen quite a few elimination tag matches lately, including one at Dynamo in October as well as WWE's Survivor Series...always been a fan of the gimmick.
I still don't get Jackson Whitechapel's character change to "Jacko The Clown", but the fans seem to like it and that's what counts. He eliminated Sean Orleans out of nowhere, only to eat a superkick from A.J. Williams to re-even the sides. A blind tag allowed Laurence Johnson to clothesline Everett Connors from behind, scoring a fall on the Junior Heavyweight Champion and continuing their feud. Brian James was the next to go; he already went through a tough contest earlier in the night and the numbers caught up to him. A Davidson spinebuster set up a Macho Elbow from A.J. for the three-count, leaving Da'Marius Jones and Dave Osborne against four Elitism members.
Osborne is taking a break from wrestling and he went out with a bang, single-handedly turning the tide for his team. He pinned A.J. after a spinebuster, then delivered an impressive cobra clutch suplex on Kevin Lee Davidson to beat the new T.V. Champ. Johnson was the next to go after a swinging uranagi backbreaker...but Espinosa cut off the momentum with his jumping DDT to eliminate Big Dave. That left Da'Marius and Espinosa and the two had a really good ten-minute match-within-a-match. A.J. stuck his nose into the proceedings again in an attempt to screw over his former tag team partner, but it was not to be. Espinosa went to the top rope to finish, but Da'Marius caught him with a mid-air Paydirt for the final win!
Espinosa was unusually respectful and offered Jones a title shot...but Jim Harris noted that Gary Jackson had already been promised a title shot. In an effort to kill two birds with one stone, Harris decided that Espinosa would defend against Da'Marius in January...then the winner of that match would defend against Gary later that night. No word on whether Gary will face "suitable competition" before his championship match(a la WrestleMania X).
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PWE posted a few matches from their Friday show. Cameron Cage wasn't at the event, so the match was changed from Makaze vs. Cage(managed by Mr. Late-Nite) to Billy McNeil vs. Makaze(managed by Late-Nite); managerial interference allowed Makaze to win the opener.
Jonny Griffin worked an IHW show several years ago and then I hadn't heard of him doing anything until this show. He was pretty much destroyed by Barackus in their matchup.
The main event saw Brandon Aarons defeat Leone Mephisto by DQ due to a Makaze run-in...that brought out Billy McNeil for an impromptu no-DQ tag match where the four men brawled all around the ringside area. Aarons pinned Mephisto after hitting his Burning Hammer variation onto a chair. There's no exact return date, but their Facebook page says that a PWE Heavyweight Champion will be crowned at that show.
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Think that's about it for this past weekend...
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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