Now, as promised, a special comment about
Friday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Sports Academy in Glen Carbon,
Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
This was Dynamo's first visit to Glen Carbon since last fall. Other
than the formality of having an Illinois venue, I honestly don't know why
they still run here. With all due respect, they haven't drawn well
at the Sports Academy in a long time(except for special occasions like
the GCW reunion show) and this was no exception. Perhaps Wood River
would be a better place for that...even though it's a smaller building,
it sounds good regardless of crowd size.
Since there was only a week between shows, only two matches were announced
for this show ahead of time: The six-man tag team main event and
Ricky Cruz vs. Paco Gonzalez for the IWRG Rey De Ring Title. From
the sound of things, recent injuries have thrown a monkey wrench
into the roster availability (not to mention Missouri licensing renewal
with regards to the Fenton shows).
Your ring announcers were Chris Roedel & Luke Roberts; your referees
were Jay King & Richard White.
Keith Smith Jr. vs. Austin Blackburn: This was a preshow match that
started around 7:50 PM; it was essentially the Dynamo debut for both guys
(though Keith Jr. was in a six-man tag at the GCW reunion event). I'm
not sure how much experience Keith has with opponents who are decidedly
smaller than himself, but they did well for their respective experience
levels. Blackburn worked heel for the first time that I've seen. Smith won with a discus lariat in 3:33.
Co-promoter Crystal Yount opened the show by acknowledging the difference
in scenery...Dynamo hadn't had a show in Glen Carbon since the theft of
the previous ring. She thanked everyone for coming and kept it short
and sweet...cool by me. As I often say, I freel like people go to
independent shows to see something different from what's on television.
If I want to watch a wrestling show with a ton of talking, it's right
there on Monday nights. *cough*
Jackal vs. Tag Team Champion(?) Jayden Fenix(w/ Travis Cook): Jackal
& Jake Dirden had been Tag Champs for a few months before being dethroned
by the Black Hand Warrior trio. As usual, Travis provided his own
customized introduction for his protege. These two seemed to work
pretty well together. Fenix blocked an attempted Killswitch #2(turnbuckle-walk
Tomakazi...RIP Tommy Rogers) and got the clean win with a sitout powerbomb
in 7:08.
The Bumrush Brothers("The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs & Outtkast)
vs. "The Elitist" Brandon Espinosa & "The Filipino Warrior"
Elvis Aliaga: No Lucy Mendez on this night as she was booked elsewhere
for the weekend. These teams split a pair of singles matches last
week in Fenton to set this up. I look forward to seeing what else
these duos can do against each other. Each tandem hit their big moves(Samoan
Drop/dropkick combo by the BRBs, Russian legsweep/flying knee strike combo
from Espinosa & Aliaga) but the fallen man's partner broke up each
pin attempt. Shorty and Aliaga took it to the floor and the referee's
attention was diverted, allowing Espy to nail Outtkast in the ding-ding
and roll him up with the tights in 10:33. Owie.
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz vs. "The Madman" Paco
Gonzalez for the IWRG Rey De Ring Title: The match was fine but it
had a few things going against it. First of all, it was a face-vs.-face
bout. Secondly, while it's cool to see the Rey De Ring Championship
defended in this area, it's unlikely that we'll see another organization's
title change hands. Third, I don't know if people bought Paco as
a legitimate threat to Ricky. Paco attends nearly Southern Illinois
University-Edwardsville so he had his cheering section, at any rate. Nothing
wrong with the in-ring work at all, I should emphasize...to be fair, Glen
Carbon has been a tough crowd in general in recent times. Paco delivered
an offensive flurry and scored his best near-fall of the match after a
frog splash. However, Cruz was able to rebound with a uranagi and
hooked his version of the Anaconda Vice for the tapout in 10:00.
Brandon Aarons vs. Shawn Santel(w/ Mauler McDarby): This was an offshoot
from the recent Wood River show when Aarons and Evan Morris defeated The
Professionals. I remember these two having a really strong singles
match in MECW a few years back. However, that wasn't in the cards
for the night as McDarby quickly interfered, pushing Aarons off the top
rope for the DQ in 2:32. Cue double-team beatdown, then Morris ran
in for the save and set up an impromptu tag bout.
Brandon Aarons & Evan Morris vs. The Professionals(Shawn Santel &
Mauler McDarby): It occurred to me that Santel & McDarby's style
might fit better in a more old-school environment like SICW or even WLW...too
bad SICW doesn't have Tag Titles at the moment. They've had solid
matches, but I think it would help for them to have a good rivalry with
a flashier duo as their "foil". Midcard guys who aren't
in the running for the big belt seem like they're best served finding tag
partners and going after those belts. Standard-formula tag match
here...bonzo gonzo and Aarons pinned Santel after he and Morris hit stereo
close-range superkicks in 8:30.
Intermission~! I picked up a bottle of Gatorade before the show,
but I ordered fries and got a root beer during this time. I blame
myself for waiting a bit before ordering; the fries weren't done until
the show had restarted, so I had to run back and get them after the next
bout.
Rocket Mapache vs. "The Millenial" Danny Adams: Adams defeated
Rocket in Fenton the previous week, so this was the rematch. Adams
is one of the newer guys in the area to watch; he's had some good opportunities
on recent Ring Of Honor shows. He focused his attack on Rocket's
recently-injured arm, but Mapache was able to surprise him with a small
package out of nowhere for the flash pin in 8:01. Adams threw a huge
tantrum after the match as Rocket got away with the win despite an achy-breaky
arm...
"The Irish Luchador" Billy McNeil vs. "The Freestyle Phenom"
Jay Howard: Howard is one of the newer trainees out of Harley Race's
facility; I had seen a few of his matches on YouTube but this was my first
chance to see him in the ring in person. He worked a technical style
with a lot of suplexes and other throws; it was a good contrast to Billy's
unorthodox repertoire. In this case, experience and resilience trumped
raw power...McNeil got the win with a splash off the top rope in 9:20.
Mike Outlaw, Justin D'Air, & Keon Option vs. Heavyweight Champion "Dirdey"
Jake Dirden & Tag Team Champions The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson
& Dave DeLorean)(w/ Travis Cook): Travis has re-dubbed Dirden
"The Intelligent Monster" as of late. Dirden won the title
from Outlaw under dubious circumstances, then retained against Outlaw last
week thanks to then-Executive Director Mark Bland's questionable actions;
Bland seems to be out of the picture since being fired by Crystal. D'Air
& Option have backed up Outlaw in recent months, including a six-man
tag at Off Broadway against all three Warriors. They nearly won the
Tag Titles from Magnuson & DeLorean last week in Fenton, but the decision
was reversed.
It didn't take long for this one to break down...and the seemingly-lethargic
crowd finally came alive for the main event. Option did a spear through
the ropes on Magnuson similiar to Big E Langston's move, only he took out
two guys in one shot as he plowed Magnuson into Dirden on the floor! Outlaw
and D'Air followed up with some major hangtime on their own somersault
dives to the floor...YAY FLIPPES~! Option took abuse from the heel
trio...D'Air got a hot tag, but the numbers caught up to him and he was
isolated from his corner as well. Finally, Outlaw got hot tag number
two and the good guys rallied. They cleared the Tag Champs out of
the ring long enough to isolate Dirden...Option hit Paydirt and D'Air followed
up with his killer 450 Splash! Outlaw went for the pin, but all three
men tried to dogpile Dirden at once and the referee wouldn't count the
fall that way. The Black Hand Warriors re-entered the fray and halted
Outlaw's momentum with a 3-D(popular double-team move these days...). Outlaw
still managed to fight back against Dirden and hit the High Noon(top-rope
elbowdrop) but Cook distracted the referee. Outlaw knocked Cook off
the apron but got caught in a Dirden chokeslam...that led to the three-count
with Cook swatting Outlaw's foot off the bottom rope at the 20:18 mark!
Wow, that marks the second time in recent months that a heel win
in the main event surprised me(the other was Off Broadway).
The Travis Cook Organization got out of dodge with their gold, but Option
vowed that the war wasn't over yet...he's a pretty good talker for his
short time in The Business(tm), which is cool to see.
Dynamo's upcoming schedule will be a bit different than usual; there won't
be a Fenton show in July because of Independence Day. Their next
event is in Glen Carbon on July 11th with a benefit for the SHARE organization.
They have their second annual Eureka event on August 1st. Keep
up to speed on my blog as well as the Missouri Wrestling Revival and St.
Louis Wrestling websites...
It was another doubleheader weekend and you can read about part two...when
I write about it. Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
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