PWCS Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Pro Wrestling Championship Series show at the YMCA in Granite City, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

The Blacklist(captained by Makaze) won the first season of PWCS, but it's a new year and the scoreboard is back to zero for all four stables.  The rosters have been shuffled, including the tease of a new "owner" for Team Anarchy.  The only change to the announced lineup was the late cancellation of "The Hoss Of The Highway" J.D. Riggs, leaving his scheduled opponent Adam Rich to issue an open challenge on the show.

Turnout was pretty good, though not packed to the gills like in January for the Season One finale.

Your ring announcer was Tito McGee; your referees were "Meat Loaf"(per Jojo Bravo) and Richard White.

The show started with the Season One Blacklist alumni(Makaze & Jojo Bravo) celebrating with the championship trophy.  They have a championship banner hung up in the building, which is a nice touch.  The interruption came in the form of the current roster of the Ego Busters:  Manager Greg Jovi, Gary Jay, Dan Walsh, Brandon Espinosa, & new recruit Danny Adams.  Jovi said The Blacklist got lucky in Season One but said things would be different this time around...they teased a beatdown, but Blacklist had two new allies:  The Viking War Party.  They hit the ring and the Ego Busters bailed, segueing nicely into our opening bout.

The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell)(Blacklist) vs. The Submission Squad(Evan Gelistico & Pierre Abernathy)(Team Anarchy):  Rudolph & Parnell were members of Team Anarchy in Season One.  Pierre hasn't been too active in the St. Louis area since he defers to his administrative duties in St. Louis Anarchy.  The Vikings have been making waves in other parts of the country; Rudolph was in IWA Mid-South's Prince Of The Deathmatches Tournament on Sunday.  This was a LONG opener and I'm pretty sure it was the longest match of the night...it could have legitimately gone either way.  Chaos ensued for the finish and Gelistico rolled up Rudolph in 17:22(!).  (Team Anarchy 1-0, Blacklist 0-1)

After the match, The Kobra Kai Dojo(Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett) hit the ring with a contract to face The Submission Squad at the next show.  The duos had issues stemming from their struggle for control of Team Anarchy in Season One...they were supposed to face each other at the season finale in January, but Evan & Pierre had another booking so Vega & Fitchett faced the Vikings instead.  As a result, Vega & Fitchett defected to The Resurgence and now they're on different teams.  Pierre didn't want to sign the contract and Anarchy teammate Alex Castle hit both men with low blows from behind.  Team Anarchy prepared for the beatdown but Resurgence stablemates Steven Kennedy & Jake Dirden ran them off before any more damage could be done.

Justin D'Air vs. "The Alternative" Ozzie Gallagher:  This was a free agent showcase featuring two men who had been on a few previous shows...and both men were looking for that elusive notch in the win column.  The ceiling in the venue makes it tricky to pull off top-rope moves, but just about anything is possible in the right corners of the ring.  D'Air scored the victory with a frog splash in 11:39.

The Kobra Kai Dojo(Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett)(Resurgence) vs. "Walking Reality" Dan Walsh & Brandon Espinosa(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters):  In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Fitchett brought out a big inflatable leprechaun...I think he had brought it out at a previous show around this time of year.  Walsh, in the fine tradition of his abuse of inflatable crocodiles, knocked the doll off the edge of the ring and then gave it a suplex on the floor.  THAT INFLATABLE LEPRECHAUN HAD A FAMILY~!  Vega & Fitchett were the more experienced team, but Walsh & Espy had plenty of prior tag team know-how with other partners.  Pierre(with no stake in the outcome) decided to respond to Vega's earlier challenge by BREAKING the contract clipboard over his head...the referee's attention was elsewhere and Walsh scored the pin on Vega in 8:52.  (Ego Busters 1-0, Resurgence 0-1)  Vega was left bloody from the attack and Pierre left the signed contract on Vega's fallen form...guess that's a go for the next show.  (It was announced as being in May but no exact date was given.)

Makaze(Blacklist) vs. "The Daywalker" Alex Castle(Team Anarchy):  Castle dominated most of the match, but I don't think people bought him as a threat to win here.  Unfortunately, Castle hasn't won much in this area(though he did win that six-way match in January)...they did their best to tease the upset as Castle hit him with a bunch of Panic Attack knees in the corner.  I always cringe when I see Makaze take shots like that, given his concussion history.  The gimmick of the vampire character losing to CRUCIFIX pins or CROSS-bodyblocks is cute, but I'm glad they didn't go with that finish here.  Makaze won with the blizzard suplex(Northern Lights w/ leghook) in 7:14.  (Blacklist 1-1, Team Anarchy 1-1)

Cue intermission~!  Had a chance to talk to Vega about his Ring Of Honor debut on Friday...cool for him.  He, Dirden, and Danny Adams worked a pre-show six-man tag in Milwaukee.  Also picked up my first wrestling T-shirt in a while as I got the new Steven Kennedy shirt...woo.  Speaking of which...

Steven Kennedy(Resurgence) vs. Gary Jay(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters):  Interesting match placement since this was the top advertised bout...it definitely hinted that they had something notable in store for the night's finale.  The story was that Gary beat Kennedy at last year's debut event and Kennedy wanted to even the score...and he did everything possible to bring about that result.  They had a really strong matchup with each guy surviving the other's best shots...the closest near-fall came after Kennedy hit the Splash Mountain followed immediately by the Assassination(Angel's Wings).  The fight spilled out to the ring apron and Kennedy hit the Assassination onto the edge of the ring...I was sure Kennedy would get a countout win from that, but he didn't quite beat the ten-count.  (No announced time, but I'd ballpark it at about ten minutes.)  (Resurgence 0-1-1, Ego Busters 1-0-1)

The real fireworks took place after the match...out of nowhere, K.C. Karrington hit the ring and stood face-to-face with his longtime tag team partner Kennedy.  With no warning, Karrington punted Kennedy below the belt and then dropped him with a piledriver!  Karrington revealed himself as the new "owner" of Team Anarchy and renamed it the "Chaos Nation"...he said he wanted to prove the ideals of the league(teamwork, unity, sportsmanship) were a farce.  That was why his first target was Jojo Bravo:  Jojo had been a longtime proponent of those ideals as it related to his Blacklist team.  Very interesting...

Jonah Turk vs. "Superior" Adam Rich:  Rather than a standard entrance, Adam walked through the front door after walking from the gym area of the YMCA...well played.  The original stipulation was that the loser would have to follow the winner's diet plan for thirty days, but that was out the window due to Riggs' absence.  I had only seen Turk one previous time(in a battle royal at Dynamo); he's a heavy-set dude with a glasses-and-mustache insignia on his tights.  Going by the state of his ring attire, he has a great future as a plumber if the wrestling thing doesn't work out...err.  At any rate, totally new guy vs. semi-new guy didn't lead to much crowd heat, sorry to say.  Rich won with a hanging DDT in 3:22.

"Dirdey" Jake Dirden(Resurgence) vs. "Blue Chip" Danny Adams(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters):  This was WAY more competitive than I was expecting and it took some doing for the fans to buy Adams as a legit threat.  Michael Elgin-trainee Adams has gotten a few matches on Ring Of Honor shows and was in the main event of last week's Pro Wrestling Epic show.  They had a great false finish where Adams and Jovi manipulated the referee and Adams sent Dirden head-first into a steel chair that was wedged in the corner.  That led to a close near-fall, but Dirden was able to rally and win with hisvariation of the Asiatic Spike, throttling Adams to the mat for the pinfall in 11:17.  (Resurgence 1-1-1, Ego Busters 1-1-1)

Jojo Bravo(Blacklist) vs. K.C. Karrington(Team Anarchy^H^H^HChaos Nation):  Jojo continued his tradition of team-building exercises despite the absences of Outtkast, Nate Redwing, and Makaze(who he said had left the building)...he got the referee("Meat Loaf") to spell out "Blacklist" cheerleader-style.  Karrington hadn't wrestled since mid-2013 for unknown reasons...the ring rust was there but they had a pretty good matchup.  He's been through a few character transformations:  Stunning Shane Marx, Ego Express-era Karrington, singles contender Karrington, and "Indy Jesus" Karrington.  Jojo showed his trademark resilience as he hung in there for most of the bout...so K.C. brought the championship trophy into the ring.  As the ref was moving the trophy out of the ring, K.C. kicked Bravo below the belt and followed up with the piledriver(callback to the turn on Kennedy!).  That was enough for the victory in 11:09...

Final scoreboard for Season Two Stage One:  Chaos Nation 2-1, Ego Busters 1-1-1, Resurgence 1-1-1, Blacklist 1-2.  Definite reversal of fortunes as last year's champions are in the cellar...but it's still early and it's still anybody's ballgame.

Post-show:  Went through a sobriety checkpoint on the way home...miraculously, I made it through with no problems.  "Is everything current?"  "You mean besides the hat and the hairstyle?"  I hadn't eaten much that day, so I made a Taco Bell run on the way home...good thing my diet didn't start until "tomorrow".  Of course, "tomorrow" is when my diet has been scheduled to start for a few years now...

The rest of March looks like this:
-Saturday 3/21:  SICW in East Carondelet, IL (Nikolai Volkoff appearing); WLW in Troy, MO (Trevor Murdoch appearing)
-Friday 3/27:  PWE in East St. Louis, IL

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.