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, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

This commentary will be condensed as I wasn't there in person.  From what I could see in the video, they had a strong turnout for the show.  The "Dirty Heinous" show did the live webcast with commentary and the show is archived on YouTube.  The commentary got a bit obnoxious at times...the main guy was loudly backing the heels and the female commentator wasn't nearly as outspoken while supporting the faces.

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

Kevin Lee Davidson(w/ Sean Orleans) vs. Moondog Rover for the T.V. Title:  K.L.D. won the title from Moondog in December and this was the rematch; Rover defeated Jimmy D in January to earn the shot.  LaMarcus Clinton tried to attack Moondog before the bell and was immediately slammed to the mat; this somehow got LMC AND Orleans ejected from ringside.  This went longer than it probably should have, but the fans were into the match and that's what counts.  KLD missed an avalanche and Moondog rolled him up out of nowhere to regain the T.V. Title in 11:14.

Tag Team Champion Johnathan Zulu vs. Brandon Espinosa:  Espy said that he would be searching for a partner to go after the Tag Team Titles since he's held all of the singles championships in MMWA...good goal.  Zulu had a good showing but the experience advantage was too much for him to overcome.  Espinosa delivered a turnbuckle brainbuster and INITIALLY won by countout in 13:35...but he continued the assault after the match and the decision was reversed.  Andrew Wilder ran in to help his tag partner but Espy cut him off, then got both guys on his shoulders at once for a turnbuckle Death Valley Driver!  Still getting used to power-move Espy.

"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. A.J. Williams:  This was an unofficial contenders' match for a Heavyweight Title shot; A.J. screwed Gary out of his title shot at new champion Da'Marius Jones in January and has been interfering with his former tag partner's matches for months.  It's a bit surprising that Williams is the obvious rival for Jones but he keeps losing these contenders' matches.  It was a strong outing but Gary got the clean tapout win with the Texas Cloverleaf in 11:47.  Gary asked Commissioner Jim Harris and promoter Tony Casta about getting another title shot and they said they'd consider it.

Flaming Freddie Fury vs. Laurence Johnson:  This was scheduled to be Johnson challenging "Risky Business" Everett Connors for the Jr. Heavyweight Title, but fans were told that Johnson attacked Connors backstage and he was too injured to compete.  (Wonder if it was a Missouri licensing issue that caused the change...that'd be my guess.)  At any rate, Johnson indirectly cost himself a title shot...he's still carrying around the title belt and claiming to be the champion.  Fury's gimmick and Johnson's name gave the video commentator plenty of material for double entendres...I'll leave it at that.  This may have been Johnson's first actual win in singles competition(other than his pin of Connors in December's elimination tag match)...he got the victory after an exploder suplex and LARIATOOOOO~! in 8:00.  Connors ran out to attack Laurence after the bell(not looking THAT hurt), hitting the guillotine legdrop before retrieving his belt.

Tag Team Champion Andrew "The Wolf" Wilder vs. LaMarcus Clinton:  I wondered how LMC's style would fit into his role change, but he's been a really good heel so far.  Solid bout between these guys; LMC won with the old double-leg pin and feet on the ropes in 7:05.

Jacko The Clown vs. Sean Orleans(w/ Bobby Eaton & Brian Thompson):  Eaton was the special guest at MMWA on Saturday night...he is better known as a heel in his career, though by all accounts he's one of the nicest guys in the wrestling business.  My colleague Drew Abbenhaus hit on something that's been bugging me about Jackson Whitechapel's character change:  There was no real reason for it.  I don't know if there was a YouTube video explaining it, but to most fans, he just randomly decided to start dressing up as a clown.  MMWA has been pushing that Orleans is scared of clowns(completely understandable), but that part of the story seemed to materialize after the fact.  Anywho, I can only assume that Thompson is licensed and Eaton isn't, thus explaining why only Thompson got physically involved in the match...Eaton distracted the ref while Thompson grabbed Jacko's foot, causing him to fall off the second rope during a splash attempt.  Orleans followed up with his version of the advanced curbstomp for the win in 8:11.

Barackus & Super Electro vs. "Extreme Chaos" Jimmy D & J-Mal Swagg:  The Barackus/Swagg breakup story continued as they each got a new tag team partner for this one.  Both sides worked well enough together, but the makeshift duo of Barackus and Electro won after a double-clawhold chokeslam on Swagg.  Barackus got the three-count in 6:54.

Da'Marius Jones vs. Survivor Champion "Da Bomb" Brian James for the Heavyweight Title:  James defeated A.J. Williams at the January show to earn this shot.  They had a good matchup considering it was face-vs.-face and the fans seemed to be into it.  However, A.J. screwed things up again...he superkicked James as he was setting up his sitout gourdbuster, leading to a DQ win for James(but not a title change) in 12:55.  Last month, it could be argued that Jones had already wrestled while Gary Jackson was fresh, but now Jones is starting to look a bit weak as champion as he's had to be saved from defeat on two occasions.  Next month will have Jackson vs. James to determine a contender...I don't know if Da'Marius will finally face A.J. one-on-one or not.  As always, will post the lineup when it becomes available.

Two down, one to go...that'll probably be up tomorrow.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.