Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's Pro Wrestling Epic show at the Clyde C. Jordan Senior Citizens' Center in East St. Louis, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
This was a fundraiser for a local political ticket; as such, the fundraiser did the promotion for the event as opposed to PWE itself. It was a smaller-scale show than PWE's usual fare at The Field in Pontoon Beach, IL; they've drawn really good crowds there for their first two shows. Their shows had conflicted with other events prior to this, so this was my first visit to Pro Wrestling Epic.
When it is a smaller crowd, there's more onus on each individual fan to be actively involved in the cheering/booing/making noise in general. It's an odd departure from my usual comparison of wrestling and standup comedy: Comedy encourages an audience reaction, but only laughter and not outright heckling. Wrestling is different as the bad guys do their best to PROVOKE heckling at every turn and the good guys encourage the fans to heckle the opposition. I'm not the most vocal person at wrestling shows and prefer to sit/stand back and observe, but it can be fun to "get into" a show to that level. A lot of the wrestlers know me and work up some level of banter...heh.
Your ring announcers were Bobby Roles and Phreze Smith; your referees were Rick Brewer Jr. and Jay King(returning to the striped shirt after several months off for health reasons).
Battle Royal: The opener started with Tyler Copeland doing a promo about how he bought Barackus' contract and the big man would ensure his victory...this got him superkicked by Paco Gonzalez to literally kick-start the match. (See what I did there?) Everyone was eliminated pretty quickly: LaMarcus Clinton, Dash Rando, Paco, Evan Gelistico, Danny Adams, and Steven Kennedy. That left Copeland(who had rolled out of the ring for refuge), Barackus, and Clownman Jacko as the final three...Copeland told Barackus to let him eliminate the clown, but Jacko eliminated Copeland and the big man quickly sent Jacko to the floor for the win in a brisk 2:18. This immediately segued into the next match...
Dash Rando vs. Barackus(w/ Tyler Copeland): Splat. Copeland seethed at ringside over his battle royal elimination as Rando got destroyed. Clawhold Flatliner mercifully ended it in 1:31.
"The Madman" Paco Gonzalez vs. Gary Jay: This one was really good...compared to the quickies preceding it, it got a good amount of time. There was a fun bit of fan participation: Paco took Gary around ringside and encouraged front-row fans to hold their feet up so he could run Gary's face into them...heh. It's still funny how Gary went without talking for years when he was the Barn Owl, but now he's a constant trash-talker. He scored the hard-fought win with the Michinoku Driver in 10:12...good times.
Intermission! The Polish sausage was tremendous...I felt a need to grow a thick bushy mustache and root for DA BULLS~! after my consumption. Jacko came out to paint kids' faces...nice little bit of fan interaction. Speaking of which...
Clownman Jacko vs. "Infamous" Tyler Copeland: The clown character seemed to happen out of nowhere for the former Jackson Whitechapel...I'm told that it stemmed from his former manager Sean Orleans having a "fear of clowns" and he just stuck with it. Barackus was not at ringside for this matchup, something that led to an angle later in the show. Jacko missed a senton bomb off the second rope(Big Top Drop?) and Copeland got a near-fall after a discus lariat, but locked on the Last Chancery and Jacko's arm dropped thrice in 3:37. Copeland brought in a chair to do more damage but Billy McNeil ran him off.
LaMarcus Clinton vs. "The Specialist" Evan Gelistico: The ring announcer may have actually called Gelistico "Pistol Danger" but I'm not sure. Evan brought out a kendo stick and used it for batting practice with LMC's can of hairspray...which nearly went bad as it whizzed right by some front-row fans. A lady in the front row laughed about it and winged it back in his direction, sending it sailing across the building...so that happened. In honor of Larry Zbyszko's WWE Hall Of Fame entry, Evan did a tremendous stall job in the early minutes of the matchup, including a slow "striptease"-style removal of his T-shirt. This was a good matchup with LMC playing the underdog face against the experience heel Gelistico. Despite the low ceiling clearance, LMC pulled up some of his signature aerial moves, including the Buff Blockbuster that scored him the upset win in 11:00.
Copeland brought out Barackus and accused him of breaching his contract since he didn't protect him in the battle royal or in his singles match...he literally held the contract over the big man's head. That led to Barackus introducing Copeland to his clawhold and dropping him with a Baldo Bomb...ladies and gentlemen, we have a face turn.
Heavyweight Champion Brandon Aarons & Billy McNeil vs. Steven Kennedy & Danny Adams: Kennedy subbed for Leone Mephisto in a change to the only announced matchup for the show. They started with a lot of jaw-jacking, including Kennedy & Adams wanting a pre-match handshake and Aarons & Billy not trusting them. McNeil made a wisecrack about Adams' upbringing, causing Adams to have an emotional breakdown as Kennedy yelled "HE DOESN'T KNOW WHO HIS FATHER IS!" Bwahahaha. Kennedy also told a ringside woman that her hair looked like Moe from the Three Stooges...heel Kennedy is fun. I've known three of the four guys for a long time and Adams has done really well in recent higher-profile matches. The end came when McNeil pinned Kennedy after a splash off the top rope in 16:17.
Post-match saw the heels do the post-match attack with Mephisto joining to un-even the odds...that brought out Barackus to run them off and stand tall with the fan favorites. Woo-hoo.
April looks like this:
-Saturday 4/4: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO
-Sunday 4/5: High Risk Wrestling in Belleville, IL
-Saturday 4/11: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO; World Powerhouse Wrestling in Jerseyville, IL
-Friday 4/17: St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL
-Saturday 4/18: St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in Millstadt, IL; World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Saturday 4/25: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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