Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
This show was built up with two pretty big main events...it was odd for the actual title match to be number three in terms of prominence, but the championship picture had been overshadowed by the Red River Jack/Ricky Cruz situation in recent months. Attendance was pretty good after being slightly down in previous months.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus, your referees were Jay King and Keith Smith Jr.
The show started with Herb addressing Larry Matysik's recent health issues...he suffered a minor stroke a few days before Thanksgiving and is recovering at Memorial Hospital. Speaking from my own experience, he's in good hands there. This was the first SICW show he had missed in a long time(possibly ever), but hopefully he'll be back soon; he's still a big part of the company behind the scenes.
Sean Vincent & Bobby D vs. Brandon Espinosa & Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre): This was Vincent's first match in two years and Wylde's first match in a long time. Espinosa's appearance was a surprise; perhaps some bridges are being rebuilt between SICW and the MMWA (this was his first appearance in East Carondelet since the promotional split). A tag match was probably a good idea for Vincent and Wylde to work off the ring rust. Wyldefyre tripped Vincent, but Wylde knocked Espy off the apron by mistake and Vincent rolled up Wylde for the pin in 8:50. Vincent offered Espy a handshake after the match, but Espy kicked him in the Ding-Ding(tm Shorty Biggs or Steve Corino, depending on your frame of reference) and walked away. Gosh darn it, that means we'll have to see Vincent and Espy in a singles match. Gosh darn it.
"Risky Business" Everett Connors vs. Attila Khan(w/ Travis Cook): I wondered if Travis was under the weather with his lack of mic time...he allowed Drew to do the ring introductions for his guys for the most part. Travis added an old-school tough to Khan's gimmick as he came out under a black hood...Travis removed the hood before the match and then put it back on him afterwards to calm him down. Connors is the Junior Heavyweight Champion in the MMWA, but he was making his SICW debut here and starting from scratch. This was pretty one-sided in favor of our resident Mongolian...Attila won fairly easily with the inverted DDT in 1:46. KHAAAAAN~! (Yes, every time. Shut up.) Khan used his own version of the Asiatic Spike after the match until Cook re-hooded him...hmm, potential feud with Jake Dirden over rights to the hold? Speaking of which...
"Dirdey" Jake Dirden vs. Ax Allwardt: Dirden had been away from SICW for a month or two but is still OVAH in East Carondelet. This was solid for what it was; Dirden got the win with the Asiatic Spike in 5:40.
Precending the first intermission, Herb interviewed Jim Cornette(resplendent in his "Cornette Face" T-shirt) to summarize the issues leading up to the main event. Cornette emphasized that there would be no countouts or DQs to ensure a clear winner, but he would take measures to ensure that outside interference wouldn't influence the outcome.
Big Jim Hoffarth vs. Bubba Troll: Hope the ring was reinforced for this one; I didn't anticipate too many flying headscissors here. I got a laugh out of Hoffarth being announced as hailing from "Belleville, Texas". The two big guys slugged it out until the referee tried to get between them and was pushed around. That led to the double DQ in 4:58.
"The Man Of Tomorrow" Daniel Eads & Shiloh Jonze vs. "Ironman" Ken Kasa & Bull Bronson(w/ Travis Cook): Cornette was notably out to watch both matches involving Cook's guys. Eads and Kasa have crossed paths a few times lately while Bronson has been acting as "head of security" for the Travis Cook Organization. Travis' guys improved to 2-0 for the evening; Kasa pinned Jonze in 11:41 after he and Bronson delivered a Hart Attack...OLDSCHOOL.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Mohamad Ali Vaez, Texas Death Match: I'm young enough that I was only aware of the standard kind of Texas Death Match, better known nowadays as a last-man-standing match. Some versions require a pinfall or submission to take place; in either case, the downed opponent has to get back to his feet by a ten-count. In this version of the match, however, it was a thirty-count.
Vaez got a flash pin in the early minutes of the match with a backslide, something that probably surprised or embarrassed Gary more than it hurt him. Needless to say, he was easily able to get back to his feet before the thirty-count. The battle continued and Vaez got another fall with his Akbar Clutch(cobra clutch out of the camel clutch position); I couldn't tell if Jackson tapped out or passed out in the hold, but it was a fall either way and he barely answered the count to continue the match. Gary rallied and was able to get Vaez in the Texas Cloverleaf for a tapout; it was M.A.V.'s turn to barely beat the count. Vaez set up a superplex and it seemed to go awry somehow, I couldn't tell what happened from my vantage point. The match continued and Vaez cut off Gary on the top rope to hit another superplex; each man had an arm over the other and the ref counted BOTH men down. That meant both men had to beat the thirty-count; Vaez nearly got to his feet first, but his leg buckled from the damage done by the Cloverleaf(PSYCHOLOGY~!). As a result of that, Jackson was the one on his feet when the thirty-count ended, giving him the victory in 20:00. They still wanted to fight, but Gary subdued Vaez with a swinging neckbreaker and order was finally restored...
Insert intermission numero dos...here.
Flash Flanagan vs. "The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson for the Classic Title: Chaz had been MIA for a while, but returned with a few key victories to earn his way into title contention. It seemed like these guys would match up well with each other, but the bout was surprisingly short; hopefully they'll have another go-around in the future. Chaz hit a blind cross-bodyblock off the top rope and Flanagan rolled through with a handful of tights for the cheap win in 6:45.
Red River Jack(w/ Big Daddy) vs. "The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz(w/ Travis Cook & Attila Khan), RRJ's mask on the line, special referee Jim Cornette: Before the match even started, Cornette laid down the law: He named Jake Dirden as the special ringside enforcer and lent him his infamous tennis racket for the purposes of "enforcement". He also booted Khan from ringside before the opening bell even sounded...good move, all things considered. This was the last SICW show of 2014, making it the final opportunity for Travis Cook and company to prove that the masked man was actually Ron Powers; Powers would be eligible to return after the calendar year was over, but would be banned for life if it was discovered that he had violated the loser-leaves-town stipulation by competing under the mask.
These guys had their usual intense brawl with Cornette calling it down the middle as expected. Cruz survived the Double-R-F(RKO/Diamond Cutter) and Jack survived Cruz's superkick. The overbooking torpedoes were loaded for the finishing stretch as Kasa tried to interfere, but Dirden cut him off. Next up was Flash, who literally came in through the back door and jumped Dirden from behind...that took the enforcer out of the equation as they brawled all the way out of the building.
Things broke down as the tennis racket ended up in the ring and Cornette beat down Travis Cook...in the confusion, Cruz took out RRJ with the tennis racket and Cornette turned around to count...two. Cruz confronted Cornette about the count, but in the meantime RRJ got a hold of the racket and whacked Ricky across the back with it...that as enough to finish the job in 9:29!
So the year ends with Flash Flanagan as champion and Ron Powers eligible to return. The challengers to the title will be lining up as Gary Jackson and Red River Jack are coming off big wins...plus Heath Hatton has his rematch clause and Daniel Eads may want to avenge Flanagan's previous sneak attacks. Flash's previous issue with Jake Dirden seems to have resurfaced...so there are a lot of directions that the championship picture could go.
2014 is over for most of the independent promotions in this year...all that's left is High Risk Wrestling in Belleville on Sunday the 28th. I'll probably do some kind of year-in-review thingamabob on here...I'm kinda forgetful so keep bugging me so I'll actually do it, okay?
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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