Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
It was another standing-room-only turnout for SICW this past weekend...they'll need a bigger building at the rate they're going. Thankfully no big adventure in my trip to the event...I was stopped by a train on the way home, but only for a minute or two.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Denny Thomas & Terry Riley.
Morgan sang the National Anthem for the third month in a row...fine job.
Promoter Herb Simmons unveiled the trophy to be awared to the winner of next month's Bruiser Brody Memorial Battle Royal...looks good. He also ran down the list of special guests, including Stan Hansen, former WWF ring announcer Mike McGuirk, and Barbara Goodish(widow of the late Bruiser/King Kong Brody).
"Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. "Dead Sexy" Daniel Gunner: This was more of a technical match than I was expecting as Gunner focused on Vincent's arm and Vincent retaliated by working on the leg. Vincent has been finishing with a modified figure-four called the "Mapleleaf Leglock" lately and he built up to that hold...he nearly beat Curtis Wylde with it at last week's Millstadt show but the time limit expired. Vincent got the win with his new finishing hold in 7:03.
Big Jim Hoffarth & Paloma Starr vs. Ax Allwardt & Lucy Mendez: Paloma Starr has been wrestling for five years and recently moved to the area from Texas. They announced the ladies for the show but didn't announce a one-on-one match, so it turned out to be a mixed tag (similar to an LWA show where they booked MsChif and Daizee Haze and they did a mixed tag). Hoffarth and Ax had a match at the previous show where Ax got disqualified for hitting Hoffarth with his chain, so they had some prior history. It was basically a tease of the women battling and it erupted into a catfight that spilled out to the floor...resulting in a double DQ in 9:05. These feuds...MUST CONTINUE~!
"The Man Of Tomorrow" Daniel Eads vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre): Interesting matchup here between two up-and-coming competitors...Wylde had the experience edge, plus the distraction factor of his valet at ringside. Wylde isn't the most technically-refined grappler, but he's a great wrestling personality, if that makes sense. This time around, the outside factor wasn't enough to turn the tide and Eads won with the Superman Punch in 8:20.
Drew interviewed Ron Powers in the ring...the subject was Ron's request to enter the Brody Battle Royal, but Drew courageously(?) pressed the issue of Red River Jack's identity. Powers kept dodging the question until Travis Cook came out with Bull Bronson. Director Of Affairs Cowboy Bob Orton granted Ron's request, prompting the entire Travis Cook Organization to attack...Ken Kasa & Chris Hargas jumped Orton while Bronson and Attila Khan attacked Powers. Orton finally recovered enough to run off the rulebreakers with a chair, but the damage had been done as Bronson and Khan had delivered several big splashes.
Cue intermission~! Had a decent dinner, so nothing to eat on this night. Kept myself to one can of soda and a bottle of water. #middleaged
A one-on-one match between Paloma Starr and Lucy Mendez was announced for the May show...woo.
"The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson & Keith Smith Jr. vs. "Ironman" Ken Kasa & "The Icon" Chris Hargas(w/ Travis Cook): Chaz and Keith Jr. teamed with Keith Sr. at the GCW reunion show in December 2012, but last week's Millstadt show was the first time they had been in a two-on-two bout. They defeated Ax Allwardt & Waco, but this was a different sort of challenge...Kasa and Hargas had teamed up in a past life(when Kasa was known as Ian Storm). They could become a formidable tag team in the long run...guess we'll see. The tag team experience fell in the favor of Travis Cook's duo; Kasa got the win over Keith Jr. with the John Wu Dropkick in 11:24 as Hargas kept Wesson from breaking up the fall.
"Dwarf Destroyer" Little Kato vs. "The Ladies' Man" Beautiful Bobby Dean: MIDGET MADNESS~! A lot of people came specifically for this bout and noticably left after it was over. WHO SAYS SMALLER WRESTLERS DON'T DRAW?!? Ahem. They played it a bit more serious than their previous SICW meeting(about two years ago), though there were still comedy spots that drew the referee into the shenanigans. Terry Riley certainly had a "tall order"...sorry, I'll show myself out. Anywho, Dean was definitely the heel in this one...Kato won with a double karate thrust, evening the score from their previous encounter. These two have been around a long time(dating back to WLW's days on PAX when I first saw them).
Red River Jack vs. Bull Bronson(w/ Travis Cook): Big Daddy was notably absent for this month's SICW events. It was hardly a technical exhibition, as you might expect...the two powerhouses traded bombs for most of the bout. RRJ(and Ron Powers *cough*) seem to do as they please outside the ring as the masked man mercilessly beat down Bronson with a chair on the arena floor. That led to Jack getting the countout win in 7:27...perhaps the rookie referee Denny Thomas was a bit intimidated? At any rate, Attila Khan(who didn't even have a match on the card) ran in for the post-match beatdown but Cowboy Bob made the save...
Intermission numero dos~! That led into Brian Kelley presenting Daniel Eads with the Missouri Wrestling Revival Future Star award...he's definitely got the size and look, I'll be interested to see how his career progresses after only two years in the biz. Cowboy Bob announced that Ricky Cruz(wrestling in Mexico for the weekend) would be teaming with old rival Ron Powers at the May show against Khan & Bronson...very interesting.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Flash Flanagan for the Classic Title: After a few years of the SICW Championship featuring long reigns by its holders, the belt has become somewhat of a hot potato in the past twelve months. Nagging injuries cut Heath Hatton's run a bit short, then Flash only held the belt for a few months before dropping it to Gary in February. Flanagan had complained that Big Daddy's distraction had led to his downfall, so he got his contractually-obligated rematch here. These two are as old-school as it gets and had a really solid main-event bout with no outside factors...at least not until the closing moments. Gary accidentally knocked down the referee and Flanagan brought in his trademark kendo stick, but Jackson avoided the use of the weapon and got a hold of it himself. As the ref struggled to regain his wits, Flanagan brought out a chain and KOed Gary with it for the shocking title win in 15:55! Flash is now the only two-time SICW Classic Wrestling Champion and Gary's reign ended after two months in his third title defense. My own personal conspiracy theory was that SICW wanted the belt on Gary when they were in attendance at the Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas...but the long game had Flanagan as champion, thus the double switch. Just an Internet nitwit's speculation, mind you.
At any rate, that drew the month of April to a close with six shows in the books...but May will be even busier. To wit:
-Saturday 5/2: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO(Cinco De Mayo Festival/afternoon); Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO(evening)
-Tuesday 5/5: Dynamo in St. Louis, MO(Off Broadway)
-Saturday 5/9: Pro Wrestling Championship Series in Granite City, IL(new venue); Dynamo in Wood River, IL; MMWA in St. Louis, MO(South Broadway Athletic Club)
-Saturday 5/16: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Sunday 5/24: High Risk Wrestling in Cahokia, IL(new venue)
-Saturday 5/30: World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Sunday 5/31: Wrestling Invades America in Swansea, IL
If plans hold up, I'll be attending eight shows in the next month...I swear there should be support groups for this sort of thing...
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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