MMWA Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance show at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis, MO.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

I do my best to see everything on the local independent wrestling scene.  Sometimes, there are multiple shows on the same night and I can't be in two or three places at once.  Fortunately, I've been able to keep up on the MMWA through YouTube videos.  Shoutout to Timothy Miller for posting videos online...as of last month, the promotion has been putting up a live online stream of their shows and I was able to pull up the video of the event.  Attendance is rarely an issue at the SBAC and, from what I could tell, this show had a good turnout as well.

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Nick Ridenour & Brian Stoltz.

The show started with Sean Orleans getting into a heated discussion with Commissioner Jim Harris.  Now that Orleans is no longer Co-Commissioner, Harris said that he should get used to his role as an active wrestler and gave him ring attire for his tag match later in the evening.

"The Elitist" Brandon Espinosa vs. Da'Marius Jones for the Heavyweight Title:  Gary Jackson and Da'Marius Jones had both been promised title shots at the December show (in that order), so Jim Harris ruled that Espy would defend against Jones with the winner defending against Jackson later in the night.  As such, the first title match opened the show to give the champion sufficient time to rest.  Prior to the event, Ben Simon wondered if Gary should face "suitable competition" prior to his title shot, a la WrestleMania X's setup.  These two have been around the horn in the past year and a half...in fact, Jones scored an upset win over Espinosa in one of his first matches.  As a result, they know each other pretty well and had a strong matchup.  They had an Ironman Match in which Espinosa barely retained his title, then Jones pinned Espy to win last month's elimination tag match.  Each guy survived the other's best shots, then Espy brought the title belt into the ring.  However, Da'Marius avoided the belt shot and superkicked Espy to win the Heavyweight Title in 18:43, ending Espinosa's eleven-month reign!

The post-match saw Espinosa graciously  put the belt around the new champion's waist, then tell Da'Marius that he was now the standard-bearer of the promotion.  Espinosa said that he felt like he changed St. Louis wrestling for the better and it was Jones' turn to do the same...it really seemed like a passing-the-torch moment as far as the MMWA was concerned, especially since Espinosa's been a lot busier in recent months.

Moondog Rover vs. "Extreme Chaos" Jimmy D:  I don't think you could have a more severe difference between two matches.  T.V. Champion Kevin Lee Davidson watched the match from ringside since the winner would get the next title shot; Moondog and Jimmy D are both former holders of that championship and KLD won it from Moondog at the December show.  This was far, far more technical than I would have expected from the people involved.  Rover won out of nowhere with a high knee(!) in 6:08.  Jimmy D offered a handshake only to blast Rover with a cheapshot...Moondog picked up his signature bone to retaliate and ran off his rival.

Tag Team Champion Johnathan Zulu(w/ Andrew Wilder) vs. LaMarcus Clinton:  LMC has really gotten into the whole gimmick with his hair; he brought his hair-care products to ringside and offered tips to the fans before the matchup.  Never would have expected him to be a good heel but he's doing a good job of it.  This was surprisingly short; I haven't seen a whole lot of Zulu so far.  LMC got in a mule kick that the referee missed, then Wilder protested to the ref so LMC added an extra boot to the groin for good measure.  That led to LMC getting the pin with a handful of tights for good measure in 4:22.  Chase King has been MIA lately, so I wonder what's next for the Tag Team Title picture...

Survivor Champion "Da Bomb" Brian James vs. A.J. Williams, non-title:  This was for a future shot at the Heavyweight Title; James is the former titleholder and Williams has issues with his former Tag Team Championship partner Da'Marius Jones.  Expected this to be a good match and it was, but I think they could do even better...hope they have a rematch in the near future.  A.J. pinned James in last month's elimination tag match, so James evened the score here...seemed odd with Williams having the more direct issue with the current champion.  At any rate, James won with his sitout gourdbuster finisher in 10:55.

"Risky Business" Everett Connors vs. Laurence Johnson for the Jr. Heavyweight Title:  It always seems a bit odd when the ongoing events support the heel's mindset; Johnson WAS being left off shows and he HAS been featured more prominently since turning heel on Connors and siding with The Elitism.  Connors retained against Johnson in November, but Johnson pinned Connors in the elimination tag match in December and earned another title shot.  They have a unique contrast in styles as Connors is the traditional high-flyer while Johnson is shorter with a thick build(think Taz).  Connors may be one of the only people in professional wrestling to use Justin Beiber theme music non-ironically and still be a good guy.  The finish saw Connors dive off the ring apron with a flying tornado DDT to the floor...but he hit the floor hard as well, leaving neither man able to answer to ten-count at 8:17.  The double countout meant Connors retained, but Johnson attacked after the bell and left with the title belt.  More on this as it develops, presumably.

Tag Team Champion Andrew "The Wolf" Wilder(w/ Johnathan Zulu) vs. Flaming Freddie Fury:  This was your standard comedic FFF matchup with the masked man repeatedly trying to grope Wilder in non-PG ways...he even threw in a few liplocks.  The match seemed long for what it was...oh well.  Wilder won by tapout to a guillotine hold in 6:30.

Barackus & Jacko The Clown vs. J-Mal Swagg & Sean Orleans:  I appreciate wrestlers having wrestling gear, so points to Orleans for that.  Swagg's tights spell his name as "J-Mall" so I don't know whether to change my own spelling or not.  Orleans does not like clowns, we have been told...he was understandably reluctant to get in the ring with either of his opponents.  Now that Orleans is out of "power", he seems to be losing allies...Swagg finally had enough of being overpowered in the matchup and tagged Orleans before taking a hike.  That led to Orleans falling victim to Barackus' clawhold Flatliner and that was the ballgame in 9:55.

Da'Marius Jones vs. "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson for the Heavyweight Title:  I liked how Jones paced himself in the early minutes of the contest, conserving his energy since he had already been through a tough battle that night.  The match did a good job of establishing the two as equals despite Gary having the obvious experience advantage.  The wear and tear from Jones' earlier matchup caught up to him and Jackson got him in the Texas Cloverleaf in the middle of the ring.  It looked like Da'Marius' title reign would be a short one, but A.J. William ran in to superkick Gary...that led to Gary technically winning by DQ in 7:59, but the title didn't change hands.  Did A.J. feel like Da'Marius would be an easier opponent to beat for the title?  Did he simply want to ruin Jones' big night?  Again...more on this as it develops.

Things will be slow for the next few weekends, as previously noted...go to the PWCS commentary for the list of upcoming shows.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.