WIA Special Comment

Quick MMWA note:  I am told that Everett Connors was legit injured prior to the show on Saturday, thus his removal from the scheduled match.

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Now, as promised, a special comment about Sunday's Wrestling Invades America show in the Meridian Ballroom of the Morris University Center at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It can be an adventure to travel to an independent wrestling show, depending on the location of the event.  In this case, the adventure was not the trip but the search for a viable parking space at SIUE.  I spent as much time in the search as I did in the preceding drive...I asked a passing student for help, being especially careful not to make any sudden moves (they smell fear, I'm told).  After endlessly circling the visitor's parking lots, I finally secured a space right around 7:00.  If my parking odyssey and subsequent brisk walk to the ballroom affected my mood, I apologize.

The setup of the ballroom was really nice, especially the big screen for the videos.  There was no concession stand, but at least there was a water fountain nearby.  There was a decent audience for the show...they were into some parts of the show but deathly quiet for others.  There was a specific section of the audience that was there to see SIUE student Paco Gonzalez as he was in the main event.

The original match lineup had Gavin Alexander and Jayson Virtue facing Taylor Champion & Joey Grunge with Chase King facing Copeland in a street fight...I didn't see Grunge at the show.

Your ring announcers were Jeff Callahan and Ben Simon.  Your special guest eye candy was Layla Linn.  Your referees were Jason Pemberton, a black dude who didn't get named, and an unnamed heel ref who only officiated one match.  (EDIT:  Per Ben Simon, the other refs were Chris Collins and T.J. Adams.)

The event officially started with a highlight video, followed by a prerecorded segment with Robert Dorsey trying(and failing) to talk some sense into Tyler Copeland.  Copeland was a good guy for their first few shows before turning heel to join The Landlord's Empire...pardon my ignorance on some of these storylines, but WIA doesn't post show results so I only have vague details about anything before the October show.

Callahan introduced the show with Layla, who literally did nothing but stand there and look pretty...hey, good gig if you can get it.  It was funny to hear Callahan talk about "family entertainment" as Layla stood there in a barely-there skirt.

Since independent wrestling is supposed to be an alternative to the televised product, this show started with a promo segment...err.  Enter The Empire...let me see if I got all the names:  Manager Landlord, Copeland, Heavyweight Champion Jonathan Napier, Darkside, Taylor Champion, Kevin Lee Davidson, Jacko The Clown, and Jack Rebel(thanks Ben).  Jacko's clown gimmick didn't have much context in the first place and had zero context as a random guy in the heel stable.  Their trash-talking brought out The Resistance:  Gavin Alexander, Jayson Virtue, and Mike Cope along with a few other faces.  I definitely saw Jimmy D and I think Symon Phoenix was there as well.  This led to an impromptu brawl and match...

Gavin Alexander, Chase King, & Jayson Virtue(w/ Mike Cope) vs. Kevin Lee Davidson, Jacko The Clown, & Jack Rebel, street fight:  I haven't seen Cope wrestle yet; is he just a manager or is he injured?  (A quick Google search tells me that he did wrestle at one point.)  This was a chaotic brawl with little rhyme or reason...the fans didn't seem to react to much other than the louder weapon shots.  Alexander pinned Jacko after an Eye Of The Hurricane in 4:28.

LaMarcus Clinton vs. Lynn Mephisto:  Mephisto griped about his theme music since they were still using the tune associated with his former manager.  (It was a weird night for the sound guy in general.)  I'll simply say that Mephisto and said manager had another falling-out and leave it at that.  He took a cue from his promo against A.J. Williams at a previous MMWA show, offering LMC a job to drive his car and work in his field...ah, political incorrectness.  They had a solid matchup, at any rate...Mephisto won with the Air Raid Crash in 6:46.

They played a prerecorded promo by Trystan Brady Shadeux, then Nicholas Newman came out to introduce Shadeux for a LIVE promo.  Yes, lots of talking on this show.  They called out Jimmy D, claiming he was injured and cracking jokes about his age...that kick-started the next match with the added caveat of the previously-mentioned unnamed heel referee.

"The Enforcer" Jimmy D vs. Trystan Brady Shadeux(w/ Nicholas Newman):  The referee allowed a lot of underhanded tactics, but the regular officials seemed to let things slide in THEIR matches as well.  It's something I mention with regards to St. Louis Anarchy as well...when there are essentially no rules, then there are no "rulebreakers".  Shadeux hadn't wrestled much; he just had a promo segment in December and he didn't do much in the six-man tag at the September show.  The referee was barely involved in the match as he mostly just stood back and let the fight happen.  This was kind of a mess; Jimmy D cleaned house with spears on all three, then finished off Shadeux with a shaky slingshot suplex with a regular ref counting the pin in 3:36.

The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell):  This went off the rails immediately as the Vikings entered to Limp Bizkit's "My Day" for some reason, then The Hooligans came out to "Enter Sandman".  The Vikings threw a bunch of chairs into the ring and threw some other stuff around...Ben said he narrowly missed being hit by Rudolph's metal spike!  Rudolph wanted a knife fight but no one would take him up on that.  It didn't stay in the ring for too long as they brawled all over the ballroom.  The sound guy started playing Enter Sandman again for part of the match because...why not?  One of the Hooligans donned a mask from the gimmick table and Rudolph immediately couldn't tell who he was.  The highlight of the audacity came when Devin Cutter retreated to the backstage area and came out with a sheet over his head...the Vikings were terrified by the appearance of the "ghost".  This whole thing was really weird but oddly entertaining and the fans enjoyed it...Hardcore Andy was a security guard and had his work cut out for him.  This was a case where the referee just let them fight...otherwise it would have ended in a double countout right away.  They randomly ended up back at the ring, Devin rolled up Parnell in 7:54, and that was it.  All righty then.

Intermission time...the ticket guy was nice enough to let me leave my Hey Guys Comedy Club flyer on the table.  Hopefully we can get some of the college crowd to the upcoming shows.  A local rapper performed here but I forget who it was.

"Money" Matt Cage vs. Brandon Espinosa:  A section of the audience was REALLY into Matt Cage...heh.  Espinosa did a promo where he joked about how they'd have a great match (unlike some other people on the card).  I wish they had gotten more time, but it was not to be...they had a good match within their time frame.  This was another match that just ended out of nowhere as Cage got the rollup pin in 6:57...Espinosa attacked Cage after the match so the issue probably isn't settled.  Gosh darn it, that means they'll have to wrestle each other again.  Gosh darn it.  #sarcasm

Tyler Copeland came out with Taylor Champion to complain about how his scheduled opponent Chase King got hurt in the impromptu street fight.  He issued an open challenge, saying no one would be "man enough" to face him...when an open challenge is worded like like, you tend to get a non-male answer.  We didn't get a name for the debuting lady until after the match, but she seemed to have friends in attendance who knew who she was...

Kandy Kane vs. "Infamous" Tyler Copeland(w/ Taylor Champion):  I don't know the official spelling for Ms. Kane's name so I'll just go with that for now.  This was relatively short and worked for what it was; Kandy got in a few aerial moves but Copeland mostly dominated.  Kandy got the surprise pin with a modified O'Connor Roll in 2:28...Copeland dished out a post-match beating but Champion wouldn't let him use a chair.  That led to a falling-out between the Empire stablemates and Champion disposed of Copeland before raising Kandy's hand.  It's odd that they have this NCAA-caliber wrestler and then don't put him in too many matches(he's wrestled once in the last three shows)...hopefully this face turn will change that.

"Master Of The Universe" Symon Phoenix(w/ Robert Dorsey) vs. Darkside(w/ Landlord) for the Interstate Title:  This was a rematch from the September show when Phoenix won the title.  This match wasn't that great...the managers fought on the floor and got more attention than the match!  The managers both got involved and the referee let it go...then it ended in an out-of-nowhere double-collision spot where only Darkside got to his feet before the ten-count.  That gave Darkside the KO win in 6:58...he took out Dorsey with a reverse Stunner, but then hit Landlord with the same move and left on his own.  Random.

Jonathan Napier vs. Mallaki Matthews vs. "The Southern Dandy" Christian Rose vs. "The Madman" Paco Gonzalez for the Heavyweight Title:  Paco was the crowd favorite, as previously noted.  Mallaki was a heel, Rose was somewhat of a tweener.  Napier got near-zero reaction when he came out...ouch.  The match was pretty good, as expected from the people involved.  I haven't seen nearly enough of Napier to get a read on his talent level.  Finishers flew near the end...Paco hit Rose with the frog splash, but Napier threw him out of the ring and stole the pin in a marathon time of 5:33.  Gonzalez offered a handshake to the champion, but Napier blew him off so Paco superkicked him.  Paco posed with the belt over Napier to close the show...oddly, it was Trystan Shadeux and Nicholas Newman who helped Napier out of the ring after the match and not his Empire stablemates.

I don't want to be the type of fan that just complains, contrary to popular belief.  In fact, I try to focus on the positives in these commentaries and I've occasionally been accused of going easy on shows and matches that deserved worse.  This promotion has become an easy target to some people...standards have been raised in the area with several promotions putting on strong shows and drawing good audiences on a regular basis.  My view is that it's a business; if a promotion is selling tickets(and thus making money) and the fans have a good time, then that's what counts.

I don't know what I could say that someone in the wrestling business couldn't say better and with more perspective behind his or her words.  The main things I would say to any aspiring wrestler:  Keep watching, keep training, keep learning, and keep working.  Go to shows, get experience, practice.  I want wrestling to do well and I want good wrestling to do well...hopefully I speak for a lot of other fans in that regard.  I'm perfectly willing to have a civil discussion and I'm easy to find at shows; just look for the stupid hat.  :)

At any rate, I had a good time at the show...if you want to leave your own comments, feel free to do so.

Upcoming shows for the month:
-Sunday 2/15:  High Risk Wrestling in Belleville, IL
-Saturday 2/21:  SICW in East Carondelet, IL (J.J. Dillon); WLW in Troy, MO; WPW in Collinsville, IL

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.