Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Stratford Bar & Grill in Fenton, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
It was a busy weekend in the area with two shows on Saturday and another on Sunday. Both Dynamo and MMWA got good crowds as we had a brief taste of springtime weather over the weekend. I'm planning to do a separate commentary on the MMWA show since I watched the YouTube video of the event.
Saw a few familiar faces at the show...it was a mini-MRW reunion with J. Caster, Ty Dalton, and Deno Blade in the house. Cool to talk to those guys afterwards.
Odd to see a Dynamo show without Shorty Biggs or Outtkast...Shorty was on the Brothers On Whatever radio show to hype the event along with Ozzie Gallagher, Luke Roberts, Mike Outlaw, Brandon Espinosa, and Michael Elgin. Shoutout to the Shaw brothers as they're big supporters of the local independent wrestling scene...listen to them on Fridays from 6 to 8 PM on 920 AM. (That radio station seems familiar to me for some reason...)
Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your timekeeper and secondary announcer was Luke Roberts, and your referees were Michael Crase, Patrick Hook, and Richard White. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin and MsChif were special guests for autograph signing.
The show started with Executive Director Mark Bland talking about the "legal injunction" filed by Travis Cook to get the scheduled Tag Team Title match changed. I'm not sure why Guns & Beer(Bo Gott & Duke Cornell) couldn't appear, but the match was changed to a two-on-three handicap match with Dirdey Aggression facing all three Black Hand Warriors. Travis and his legal representation(Alexander P. Dixon, Esquire) made an appearance to reiterate their main points. It seemed counterproductive for the fans to chant "We Can't Hear You" loud enough that no one ELSE could hear Mr. Dixon...the guy seemed a bit young to be a lawyer, but Travis said he was fresh out of law school or something.
Brandon Aarons vs. "The Polar Vortex/Walking Reality/Danimal" Dan Walsh: Walsh had been absent from Dynamo for a while...he's a heel in most other area groups and he's trending in that direction here. Dan did a lot of stalling, something which I recently noted has become a lost art in this era of time-compressed televised wrestling. It seems like he works better as a heel, from my perspective. Walsh set up for his half-nelson slam finisher but Aarons countered into a victory roll for the flash pin in 9:40. Insert snide comment from Ben Simon about the MWR Missouri rankings...here.
Justin D'Air vs. "The New Hotness" Danny Adams: As previously noted, D'Air is the artist formerly known as Sir Isaac; this was his first wrestling appearance in Missouri. Fine outing for both guys here; I'll be watching their careers with great interest, as the saying goes. Adams hung onto the referee to hide a mule kick to the Universal Weak Point(tm), getting the cheap win in 7:42. HEEL~! Can I say that Justin had D'Air knocked out of him? *ducks thrown objects*
"The Bosnian Warchild" Spi-Ral vs. "Ironman" Ken Kasa(w/ Travis Cook): Unfortunately, Spi-Ral was MIA on this night...not sure why (Missouri licensing?). Mark Bland acknowledged that fact and Travis demanded that Kasa be announced as the winner via forfeit. Bland didn't want to do that OR raise Kasa's hand, so Kasa wiped him out with his trademark shotgun dropkick and beat him down. I suspect repercussions will ensue.
Keon Option vs. "The Alternative" Ozzie Gallagher: This was a rematch from the January show when Gallagher Cheated To Win(tm). Option's been doing well and the future looks bright as it pertains to Dynamo's rookie class of the past year. Gallagher's flown under the radar recently and has established himself as a solid heel; I thought he accounted himself well on Friday's radio show. Option scored his first win with a Side Effect in 6:00.
"The Yoga Monster" Mike Sydal vs. "The" Evan Morris: Always cool to see Sydal around here; still surprised that no one's booked him and that brother of his as a tag team. Morris did his best to ground the high-flyer but it wasn't quite enough. The yoga-mat moonsault is cool in theory(similar to the "flying carpet" splash done by Shawn and Ariya Daivari) but there are times when it can take a while to set up...despite that, Sydal hit the move for the win in 7:35.
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz vs. Elvis Aliaga(w/ Lucy Mendez): Did anyone get the license plate number of that face turn? Ricky was a total fan favorite on this night...his issue with Espinosa has carried over to Espy's allies Aliaga and Lucy. Since she wasn't wrestling on this night, Lucy went with more casual attire as opposed to the red shorts she wore at the January show...yes, I pay too much attention to these things, shut up. I didn't catch it but apparently Aliaga got some "Die Rocky Die" chants...wow. I didn't quite see how Lucy's attempted low blow backfired...was Cruz wearing a cup? At any rate, Lucy got spanked and Ricky finished with the Cruz Control(swinging fisherman buster) in 9:14...all righty then.
After intermission, Crystal Yount and Delirious called Mike Outlaw to the ring to present him with a new Heavyweight Title belt...they had been using the old GCW belt for the past few years. However, Espinosa and Lucy interrupted and Espinosa made it clear that the belt would be HIS at the end of the night. Outlaw gave a fired-up response and wanted to face Espy right then and there...but Espy said they would wait until the main-event slot that he earned and deserved. I was a bit worried about Outlaw's mic time since he sounded REALLY nervous on Friday's radio show, but he did really well here.
EDIT: I neglected to mention that I made my way to the guardrail as Delirious entered the ringside area...of course, he was extremely happy to see me and my Wayne's World hat was airborne shortly thereafter. You don't mess with tradition.
High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb) were acknowledged as they sat in the front row...they're going to Japan soon, which is a cool opportunity for them. It'll be Webb's second trip to NOAH and Gamble's first.
Dirdey Aggression("Dirdey" Jake Dirden & Jackal) vs. The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson, Dave DeLorean, & Jayden Fenix)(w/ Travis Cook & Alexander P. Dixon, Esq.) for the Tag Team Titles: Travis' logic was that since the BHWs lost the belts in a match where they were "outnumbered"(a four-way dance), then they should have the numbers advantage in their return match. Jackal wrestled most of the match as the numbers were in the favor of the challengers...but when he finally tagged out to Dirden, Dirden turned on him and forcibly tagged him back into the bout. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a heel turn! The motivation seems simple: Dirden only entered the Tag Team Title situation to get his hands on then-Heavyweight Champion Ricky Cruz...but once he was tag champ, he was sidetracked from his primary goal and now someone else has the belt. I don't know if this makes Dirden a "Travis Cook Guy" or not. At any rate, the Black Hand Warriors finished off Jackal with a huge triple-team finish: DeLorean picked him up for a Tombstone, Magnuson kicked Jackal in the head as he was held upside-down, and Fenix jumped off the top rope to assist in the spike Tombstone. DeLorean obviously got the pin after that at the 11:10 mark...The Black Hand Warriors are now three-time Dynamo Tag Team Champions. Jackal was understandably furious and challenged Dirden to face him at the March show...challenge accepted.
Mike Outlaw vs. Brandon Espinosa(w/ Lucy Mendez) for the Heavyweight Title: It's been a long slow climb to the top for Espy as far as Dynamo is concerned, but he's definitely positioned as a major player nowadays. Espinosa had a busy night as he wrestled Johnathan Zulu at MMWA earlier in the night. As expected, these guys had a really good matchup...as also expected, Lucy got involved on a few occasions. Outlaw went for the High Noon(top-rope elbowdrop) a couple of times...he missed it the first time and hit Espinosa's raised knees on the second try. Espy had Outlaw set up for the brainbuster when Ricky Cruz made another appearance...he threw a chair into the ring, but that was merely a feint. As the referee got rid of the chair, Cruz hit Espy with an enzuigiri from the ring apron...that gave Outlaw the opening to finally hit High Noon for the win in 11:24. This seemed to set up a triple threat for the title, but it sounds like it'll be a one-on-one rematch next month between Outlaw and Cruz...I imagine Espinosa will have something to say about that one. The show ended with Delirious coming out to present the new belt to the champion...woo.
It was a busy weekend...I watched the YouTube video of the MMWA show so I'll do a full commentary for that event. I went to the Wrestling Invades America show last night in Edwardsville and it was an eventful evening...I'll leave it at that for now.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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