Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's St. Louis Anarchy show at the Knights Of Columbus Hall in Alton, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
St. Louis Anarchy had been without Tag Team Titles since its days as the Lethal Wrestling Alliance, but the promotion finally crowned its first Tag Champs during this past weekend's double-shot. The Hooligans(who were the final LWA titleholders) were the odds-on favorites to win the tournament, but there were quite a few duos who had the potential to be spoilers. Dan Walsh & Jordan Lacey had been scheduled for the tourney, but Walsh is out of action with a concussion so that duo was replaced by Ricky Starks & Steve O. Reno.
I had planned to stop at a bank in Wood River to withdraw cash for my ticket, but that bank had closed down since my previous visit so I had to scramble for an ATM. Stupid out-of-network fees. *grumbles* #thanksobama
SLA made the decision to delay the show since several fans were held up by an accident on Highway 270; the preshow match took place slightly after 7:00 and the main show began around 7:30. Attendance was good, but it seemed to be a LITTLE bit down from Yuletide Terror.
Your ring announcer was Mullet Guy(I'll get his name one of these days); your referees were Richard White & P.J. Drummond.
"Risky Business" Everett Connors vs. Joe Heiken vs. J.J. Garrett vs. Jordan Lacey(w/ Greg Jovi): Lacey was the lone heel in this matchup. Heiken was a new face in SLA; he hails from Georgia and trains at the WWA4 school. (I presume he traveled with Jonathan Gresham.) We didn't really get to see his character until his singles match on the Saturday show...when more people are involved in a match, it's tougher to gauge what an individual can do. Lacey won with an elevated DDT on Connors in 3:11. (Yes, I personally timed the matches. Shut up.)
The Roommates(A.C.H. & Davey Vega) vs. Roscoe Eat Lisa("The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan & Zakk Sawyers) , Tag Team Title Tournament: A.C.H. & Vega came out to the theme from "Friends"...bwahahaha. A.C.H. and Vega have been both tag partners and opponents in the past few years, as well as real-life roommates(thus their team name). No idea where McFinnegan and Sawyers' team name came from. Fun matchup all around; Vega superkicked Sawyers into A.C.H.'s new version of the Hero's Grip(transitioning the German suplex into a modified O'Connor Roll) for the pinfall in 12:45.
The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell) d. The Kentucky Buffet("The Money" Matt Cage & Alex Castle), Tag Team Title Tournament: Continuing the trend of offbeat theme songs, Cage & Castle came out to "Fill Me Up Buttercup" with Cage singing along...outstanding. The first two tag matches were essentially face-vs.-face so they didn't have as much heat as you'd think, but they were solid bouts. This was the main question mark in my first-round predictions with the prior tag team experience of the Kentucky Buffet duo. Cage & Castle hadn't teamed up in a little while as they had been pursuing separate interests...that lack of cohesion may have made the difference here. A miscommunication led to Rudolph powerbombing Cage, then holding him upside-down for a middle-drop dropkick from Parnell. Parnell pinned Cage in 9:17, sending the Vikings to the next round of the tournament...then Castle turned on Cage, viciously destroying his arm with a steel chair (explaining Cage's absence from the following night's show).
Ricky Starks & Steve O. Reno vs. Team BOSS("The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt & Christian Rose)(w/ Greg Jovi), Tag Team Title Tournament: Doing the math, the BOSS teams would have been pitted against each other if Walsh & Lacey had remained in contention...hmm. Starks is the current ACW Heavyweight Champion but I didn't see if he had the belt with him...in fact, Reno is the current ACW U-30 Champion. Wyatt & Rose were the main people to actively work heel...shockingly enough, their matches drew more heat as a result. GASP! Wyatt & Rose pulled off a nice powerbomb/neckbreaker combo on Reno, then Rose made him tap out to the No-Leaf Clover(Liontamer-style Boston crab) in 11:27. Well done.
The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. Brandon Espinosa & Angelus Layne, Tag Team Title Tournament: Layne recently returned to action after a broken ankle. I don't know if I'd call this face-vs.-face; Espinosa & Layne mostly played it straight(err...), but the Hooligans were the obvious crowd favorites. Espy & Layne gave them a good fight, but miscommunication led to another team's downfall as Devin rolled up Espinosa in 6:35. The couple attempted to make nice afterwards, but Espy rudely DECKED Angelus afterwards...ouch.
Louis Lyndon vs. Jonathan Gresham: Gresham has really been getting into his new personae with the Cthulhu mask/jacket/tights...it definitely makes him stand out from the pack. He got some "Octopus" and "Calamari" chants over the course of the weekend. Saw Lyndon live for the first time at HRW a few weeks ago and he was impressive in his matchup with Blake Belakis...this bout was a lot of fun as well. Lyndon definitely won over the fans in his SLA debut, getting "Please Come Back" chants afterwards. They had a really fun match, one of my favorite bouts of the weekend; Gresham blinded Lyndon with green mist(octopus ink?) and obliterated him with suplexes, then repeatedly crushed his knee into the mat until he tapped out in 14:57. That was a unique finish(in a good way).
Intermission~! Shoutout to Brian Kelley & Dubray Tallman for letting me mooch off their pizza order. It's turned into a running gag at the Alton venue for the fans to be distracted when the bartender brings in a pizza order for someone at the show...heh.
Donovan Danhausen vs. "The Millenial" Danny Adams: Adams did a pretty good heel promo and issued an open challenge, something that rarely works out well for heels. Danhausen was another debuting competitor on this weekend; he's from Michigan and trained at the House Of Truth wrestling school under Truth Martini and Jimmy Jacobs. This was a good solid bout; Adams got the submission with a London Dungeon-style submission hold in 7:07.
"The Madman" Paco Gonzalez vs. Trik Davis: Davis may look REALLY young(seriously, he looks like he needs someone to drive him to the shows), but he's been wrestling for quite some time; he was a big part of the heyday of IWA Mid-South. I hadn't seen Trik too much before this, to be honest. They had a good matchup and I wasn't sure who would come out on top; Trik won with a backpack Stunner(aka Ryback's Over-The-Shoulder Boulder Holder) in 11:06.
The Hooligans vs. The Viking War Party, Tag Team Title Tournament: These teams are no strangers to each other as they're fought all over the national independent scene, including matches for Jersey All-Pro Wrestling with Necro Butcher as the Hooligans' tag partner. Frank Wyatt(the third Viking) was in the house at the merchandise table. This was as wild as you'd expect...unfortunately, no ghosts were sighted in this one. Mason pinned Parnell after the Hooligan Driver(wheelbarrow/second-rope flying DDT combo) in 10:10 to send the Cutter brothers to the finals.
The Roommates vs. Team BOSS(w/ Greg Jovi), Tag Team Title Tournament: Would we get a face/heel finale or would get a rematch from a previous SLA show with fan favorite duos squaring off? This was one of my favorite matches of the night and could have legitimately gone either way...but Rose rolled up A.C.H. with a handful of tights in 14:00. BOO~! A.C.H. & Vega teased our third tag team falling-out of the night, but elected to Hug It Out(tm) instead.
Gerald James(w/ Dorian Victor) vs. Jojo Bravo, Heavyweight Title Best-Of-3-Falls Match: With all due respect, calling it the "Heavyweight" Title doesn't really fit with the participants in this matchup. These two had a really strong match at a Pro Wrestling Championship Series event with Jojo scoring the upset victory, but James has been a dominant champion over the course of his eighteen-month(!) reign in St. Louis Anarchy. James went to a sixty-minute draw with Davey Vega in December and won his previous two title defenses(against Mat Fitchett and Angelus Layne) in two straight falls.
Bravo scored a flash pin with an O'Connor Roll in 5:00, marking the first time in nearly a year that Gerald had been pinned in SLA competition. James evened the score with a blind flying Flatliner off the second rope in 13:12. The referee was knocked down and Jojo hit an F-5, then locked Gerald in a camel clutch for a visual tapout that the official didn't see. That brought out the members of BOSS to run interference, but The Hooligans made an appearance to even things up. That cleared out everyone but Christian Rose and Dangerous Deveroux...Rose prepared to hit Jojo with a chair, but Deveroux suddenly took out Rose and unmasked to reveal Mat Fitchett! I had heard rumors about Deveroux's true identity but had no confirmation until now...I suppose the full bodysuit would do a good job of covering up all of those tattoos. Fitchett blitzed his old rival Gerald James with a flurry of offense before the referee revived, ending with a turnbuckle-walk DDT that gave Jojo a CLOSE near-fall. Bravo delivered an Asai DDT and Samurai Driver(cross-legged Ki-Krusher...WA-SHING~!), but Gerald reversed the pin into a modified victory roll and held the tights for the cheap win in 19:00. BOO~!
Of course, the weekend wasn't over...more on that next time. Same Pat-Time, same Pat-Channel.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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