WIA Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's Wrestling Invades America(née Alton) at the Knights Of Columbus Hall in Alton, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

This was my first venture to WIA in any capacity.  I've gotten a bit lazier about driving distance for wrestling shows...I know St. Louis Anarchy is worth the drive to Alton, but I'd heard mixed reviews about these guys who happen to run shows in the same venue.  I know some of the people who wrestle here, but I was seeing a lot of their regulars for the first time.  Earlier this year, pictures surfaced from one of their shows where the ring was...not in the best of shape.  (There was no bottom turnbuckle and the bottom rope was duct-taped to the ringposts.)  Thankfully, they were using a different ring this time around.  Ben Simon and Drew Abbenhaus(who attended their previous show at SIU-Edwardsville) talked me into giving this a shot...I had previously only seen YouTube videos from their shows.

I didn't know the names of the ring announcer or either referee.  Attendance was about 50-60 and the energy level over the course of the night was...varied.

The show started with a promo from the heel stable du jour:  The Empire.  Fortunately, they identified themselves since I would have had trouble otherwise:  Champion Jonathan Napier, manager-type The Landlord, main talker Tyler Copeland, black-guy-with-blond-dreadlocks Taylor Champion, skinny white guy Jason Allen, and bigger black guy Jayson Virtue.  Standard-issue we-rule-they-suck mic work...except they browboat Virtue for losing to Gavin Alexander at the previous show, thus putting Alexander in position for a title shot.

Christian Alexander vs. Robbie McCain vs. Jason Allen:  This was my first time seeing any of these guys; Alexander was the one with regular gear instead of baggy pants.  Allen was the lone heel against two faces, from what I could tell.  I don't recall much about this one except for the flurry of WWE finishers exchanged near the end(Stone Cold Stunner, Rock Bottom, etc.).  The finish saw Alexander hit McCain with a Pedigree, but Allen broke up the pin with a swanton bomb and stole the fall on McCain.  The Landlord came out to congratulate Allen afterwards(The Empire guys had left ringside before this one started).

(Leone) Mephisto(w/ Mr. Late-Nite) vs. The Hoodlum:  MLN insulted the crowd for all being on welfare...oh nos.  Squash is in season year-round in professional wrestling...this was solid for what it was.  Hoodlum had a late flurry of offense but Mephisto rolled him up for the pin.  Odd to see a squash end that way rather than with a big finisher.

LaMarcus Clinton & Moondog Pondo vs. Taylor Champion & Joey Grunge:  I know LMC and that's about it.  Moondog Pondo is not related to either of them.  Grunge is a heavy-set guy who was wearing an IWA Midwest T-shirt.  Champion was said to be an NCAA-level wrestler from SIUE who was a national champion in 2000.  (Crimefighter verified this claim in his recap of their previous show.)  Champion was scheduled to face Chris Savage but that was changed to this tag bout.  Thought Champion looked really good; would like to see him against different competition and hopefully he'll branch out a bit in his wrestling career.  Moondog Pondo and Joey Grunge...not so much.  (Say what you will about Moondog Rover, but he's VERY popular at shows around here).  The finish was kinda underwhelming as Champion pinned Moondog after a running elbowdrop...random.

Chase King vs. Tyler Copeland(w/ The Landlord), referee Jayson Virtue:  King returned to wrestling earlier this year with MMWA.  I'm not sure how Copeland had the power to name a special guest referee; he is the owner/promoter of WIA in real life, but I'm not sure if that's common knowledge within the promotion's kayfabe.  I thought the match was decent enough; Virtue called the match down the middle for the most part.  Copeland delivered a blatant low blow after escaping King's Protobomb finisher...but he had to talk Virtue out of calling for the disqualification, even slapping him in the face to keep him in line.  Copeland then locked King in the Last Chancery...to his credit, Virtue didn't just Ring The F***ing Bell(tm) and waited for the actual tapout.  Best biased heel ref evar.

Santa Claus must be booked solid at wrestling shows in December as he appeared with his "elf" at this point...that led to a confrontation with The Landlord since Santa never brought him the presents he wanted.  Landlord tried to make nice by giving gifts to the fans...he accidentally hit one fan in the face with a thrown bag of candy, whoops.  Santa gave him coal and Landlord went for a cheapshot, but Santa and his elf retaliated with a double elbowsmash.  The elf revealed himself to be Landlord's rival Robert Dorsey...I'm not sure about his official role in WIA (Wrestler? Manager?), but they've apparently been fighting each other for a while.

Da'Marius Jones vs. Brandon Espinosa:  It's safe to say that these two have crossed paths before (last week at MMWA, for instance).  I wasn't sure how the face/heel alignment would work out as Espy's been a face at WIA in the past, but it settled into the standard roles with Jones as the face and Espinosa as the heel.  They had a pretty good match...Espy won a competitive bout after the brainbuster.

Intermission ensued with Santa giving out more gifts, but Darkside attacked Santa and dragged off Robert Dorsey.  I don't know if Darkside is associated with Landlord's crew or not...

"Extreme Chaos" Jimmy D vs. LaMarcus Clinton:  Jimmy D was scheduled to challenge Symon Phoenix for the Interstate Title, but Phoenix wasn't there(no explanation given) and LMC worked twice.  This was essentially a face-vs.-face bout...which at least meant we might get a face win on this night(the heels were 5-0 at this point).  LMC brought the FLIPPIES~! in this one, which I always appreciate...yes, I'm shallow.  A couple of heels interfered; I would later find out that they were Trystan Brady Shadeux(pronounced "shadows") and his manager Nicholas Newman.  They brought a chair into play, leading to Jimmy D accidentally hitting LMC with it on the backswing and getting disqualified.  Oopsie.

Conveniently, this led into a talk show segment hosted by Newman with Shadeux as his guest.  Apparently they're rich and Canadian and thus better than us.  Shadeux spread around a bunch of board game money as he came out.  Jimmy D was quick to interrupt, setting up a match at the next WIA show(Sunday 2/8 at SIUE); D tried to spear Shadeux but took out Newman as Shadeux headed for the hills.

Jonathan Napier(w/ Landlord & Jason Allen) vs. Gavin Alexander for the Heavyweight Title:  Alexander is another heavy-set guy that I'd never seen before.  I haven't seen much of Napier, but Crimefighter tells me that he wrestles in the central Illinois scene.  Napier destroyed Alexander's leg for the majority of the bout and the fans didn't seem all that sympathetic to the fan favorite's plight.  Santa came to ringside to cheerlead for Alexander, but it was for naught as the 82nd Airborne ran interference.  That allowed Napier to bring in a chair and double-stomp Alexander's back with the chair underneath him...that was enough for the three-count and a clean sweep by the heels for the night.

Re-enter The Empire...Virtue brought out someone named Mike Cope, saying he'd beaten him up to prove his loyalty.  Copeland handed him a chair to finish the job on Alexander, but SWERVE~!  Virtue turned on Copeland with the chair and Cope revealed that he was perfectly fine, taking out Jason Allen with a spear.  The show ended with Alexander, Cope, and Virtue standing tall and proclaiming themselves the "Resistance" to counteract The Empire.  All righty then.

I'm a big believer in making one's own judgments about a wrestling product and seeing the show for oneself.  I had heard plenty of things about Wrestling Invades Alton/America and seen YouTube videos from their previous shows with matches...of...varying...quality.  My compatriots were concerned about a lack of kayfabe at some points, including one of them spotting Robert Dorsey in the bar area after his "kidnapping" by Darkside.  I've been to plenty of shows where I invoked the law of a "sliding scale of expectations"...and I think the show was about what I expected.  There were definitely rough spots, but nothing that would persuade me to ignore the promotion entirely.  Sorry to disappoint anyone who was looking for something a little more scathing than this...but that's not really my style, to the point where I've often been accused of going too easy on some things.  I know that my kind of wrestling fan tends to be accused of focusing on the negatives, so I make an effort to go the other way with things...make of that whatever you wish.

Of course, that was just part one of the weekend...but that'll be reserved for another time.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.