SLA Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's St. Louis Anarchy "Yuletide Terror" show at the Knights Of Columbus Hall in Alton, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It was another crowded weekend in Midwest independent wrestling with two shows on Friday and two more on Saturday (not to mention Metro Pro in Kansas City).  All things considered, it sounds like everyone drew really well.  It's not like there were any bad choices in the matter, from my perspective; it was just a matter of personal preference.  Attendance seemed SLIGHTLY lower on this night than in October, but the crowd enthusiasm was still there.

This was my most active weekend since my little bronchitis vacation, so I was pretty tired by the end of each night.  That may have been a factor in my perception of things, so apologies in advance if I gloss over something that deserves more attention.

There were flyers on a bunch of the seats with a YouTube web address, the date "January 1st, 2015", and the slogan "Vote Kennedy".  I don't know if they were for PWCS or SLA...I tried the web address when I got home and it didn't have anything yet, but I imagine it'll be up on 1/1/15.  Is Steven Kennedy making a return to SLA or is this something to promote the next season of PWCS?  Guess we'll find out...

Your ring announcer was ?, your referees were Brandon Tolle & ?.  (If anyone feels like filling in names, feel welcome. :))

"Mega" Chris Jones vs. Evan Gelistico:  Gelistico came out in a suit, talking about his new "cause" without really elaborating.  I THINK I had seen Jones at some point, probably on a Beyond Wrestling match video; his tights said "Catch As Catch Can" on the back.  At any rate, Gelistico finally ended his recent losing streak via Tombstone.

"The Anarchist" Arik Cannon vs. Ariya Daivari:  Okay, I have the right spelling of Daivari's first name now; to be fair, I'd seen it spelled both ways in the past.  Cannon's been a mainstay in SLA for quite a while while Daivari has only appeared a handful of times.  Maybe he'll be more a regular in the near future, given the outcome of this matchup...Daivari scored the upset win after a roaring elbow.

"The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan vs. Christian Rose:  McFinnegan had a strong showing against Darin Corbin in October, so he was back for an encore here.  It seems like most of the heels on the SLA roster are affiliated with BOSS in some manner; Rose joined the fold earlier this year.  Another fine matchup; Rose won with the No-Leaf Clover(Liontamer-style Boston crab).

Zakk Sawyers vs. Johnny Gargano:  Gargano has appeared a few times for SLA in the past year or so and, if I remember correctly, has a guaranteed title shot in his future.  This was face vs. face for the most part, though Gargano played the subtle heel as there were some very vocal Zakk fans in the audience.  Gargano continued his hot streak, winning with the Border City Stretch(I believe he calls it the Garga-No Escape)...they shook hands after the match.

A.C.H. vs. Kyle O'Reilly:  It was odd that Ring Of Honor reportedly pulled Michael Elgin from this show, but didn't pull these two (considering they were also on Sunday's Final Battle show).  Was really looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint; great action in this one.  This was another face/face bout though the fan support was slightly in favor of A.C.H.; it could have realistically gone either way.  A.C.H. won by countering a cross-armbreaker attempt into a jackknife cradle for the flash pin.  After the match, A.C.H. acknowledged that it would be Kyle's last SLA appearance for a while; they didn't specify the reason(injuries? other commitments?).  All the best to him, needless to say...

Cue intermission...notably, SLA started acknowledging time limits for matches at the October show and continued that trend here.  The ring announcer turned it into a running joke as the fans were yelling out "thirty-minute time limit!"; he changed it to twenty-nine minutes on one occasion and twenty-six-and-a-half minutes on another.  :)  (This will be important later.)

Jojo Bravo vs. "The Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell:  This was scheduled to be the final blowoff to the feud between Bravo and Michael Elgin, but Elgin was reportedly pulled from the show by ROH a few weeks ago.  It was odd to see Parnell without his Viking War Party compatriot Alexandre Rudolph; I think Rudolph and The Hooligans were in Mexico this past weekend.  Parnell played a subtle heel role to unify the fans in favor of Jojo, though he didn't really need much help in that regard.  Bravo got the win with an Oklahoma roll, then they shook hands; as Jojo said, he wanted to show his opponent the respect that Elgin never showed him.

Candice LeRae vs. Angelus Layne:  This was another face/face matchup with Layne playing the heel role for the night.  I honestly haven't seen too many of Candice's matches; she had one shot in TNA against Gail Kim in late 2013.  She's a standout in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla where she regularly competes against male opponents(similar to what MsChif and Daizee Haze once did in this area); in fact, Candice is a PWG Tag Team Champion with Joey Ryan.  It took them a bit to click together, but they had a really good matchup by the end of it.  Angelus scored the upset(in the grand scheme of things) with a victory roll reversal; SPORTSMANSHIP~! ensued afterwards.

Darin Corbin, Brandon Espinosa, Alex Castle, & Slayde Reithemeyer vs. "Walking Reality" Dan Walsh, Bolt Brady, "Gorgeous" Jordan Lacey, & Dangerous Deveroux(w/ Greg Jovi & Dorian Victor):  Walsh/Brady/Lacey came out with Jovi and Victor and I wondered if Victor would be wrestling, but then they brought out Deveroux as the fourth member of the team...not sure if he's an official member of BOSS or not.  Corbin, upset over BOSS interrupting his wedding ceremony for Espy and Angelus Layne in October, was prepared to battle on his own before the other three men came out to back him up.  I had mistakenly identified the fourth member of the face team as Jeffrey Gant; Gant got similar "Kenny Loggins" catcalls at PWCS a few months ago.  :)  Castle(never much of a team player) walked out on his partners late in the matchup; that led to Reithemeyer(who had already taken most of the abuse for his side) getting pinned by Deveroux after a low-altitude sliding forearm smash.  A strong team has the edge over strong individuals...

Gerald James(w/ Dorian Victor) vs. Davey Vega for the Heavyweight Title:  The main event started around 9:30 and I was surprised that the show might be ending a bit earlier than usual...I was slightly mistaken.  It was scheduled to be the now-traditional best-of-three-falls championship match(with a sixty-minute time limit) but Vega challenged Gerald to make it a one-fall bout.  I could tell from their pacing in the early stages of the match that they were going long, but I had no idea HOW long.

About thirty minutes in the match, Vega hit an Air Raid Crash onto the ring apron, then threw Gerald back into the ring for a pin attempt...but Victor pulled the referee out of the ring.  The ref ejected Dorian, only for Dorian to come BACK out and get decked by Vega.  All hell broke loose as Jovi brought out Rose to hit Vega with the Ride-The-Lightning(modified Go 2 Sleep)...I guess SLA is back to the no-DQ environment?  Angelus Layne came out to fight off Rose, but that brought out Dan Walsh...then Darin Corbin...then Dangerous Deveroux...then Zakk Sawyers...then Jojo Bravo.  Everyone brawled as Gerald and Vega were down...they finally cleared each other out(with Corbin making a beeline for the merchandise tables to sell his T-shirts :)) and the match continued.

James BELTed Vega for a close near-fall around the forty-minute mark.  Vega came back with a sick Air Raid Crash ONTO the top turnbuckle(a la El Generico's infamous brainbuster variation) but couldn't make a pin cover after that.  Vega got him in the Sharpshooter around the fifty-minute mark but Gerald barely reached the ropes.  Vega's final big shot was a top-rope double-stomp with James in Tree Of Woe position, but he was unable to make an immediate pin attempt after that...and the sixty-minute time limit finally expired.  Even the official end of the match didn't stop the war as the two kept fighting...that ended with Vega taking out Gerald with a suicide dive.

In this era of attention deficit disorder, you just don't SEE long matches like that any more.  MECW did a sixty-minute Ironman Match between Bailey Mannix and Eric Allen a few years ago, though I think that had a no-DQ format.  MMWA just did a sixty-minute Ironman between Brandon Espinosa and Da'Marius Jones in October.  As I noted, SLA didn't really pay attention to time limits until recently so I figured they would be doing a draw at SOME point.  I had been fully expecting Vega to win the title so I was wondering if he'd pull it out in the closing minutes...but it was not to be.  As it stands, Gerald James is at the fourteen-month mark of his title reign...I don't know if it'll be Vega, Gargano, or someone else who will end his run at the top.

Pro Wrestling Epic had previously run shows in central Illinois, but they made their debut in the greater St. Louis area on Friday night in Pontoon Beach.  They reportedly drew 233 in paid attendance, so nice job in that regard.  I've seen a few video clips from the show; Cameron Cage wasn't there so Makaze worked heel against Billy McNeil and got a screwy win.  That led to Makaze interfering in the main event between Brandon Aarons and Lynn/Leone Mephisto...Billy made the save and it turned into an impromptu tag match with the good guys winning to end the show.

More in the next commentary...stay tuned.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.