MMWA Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance show at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

After the Pro Wrestling Epic show, I had enough time to return home, eat something vaguely resembling dinner, and walk the dogs.  After that, I was on my way to the beautiful and/or historic SBAC for the evening's MMWA presentation.  The club is as much of a social spot as it is a wrestling venue, so the place was packed on this evening.  If it wasn't standing-room-only, it was pretty close to that status; myself and Drew Abbenhaus had a task to find an unobstructed view (let alone a seat).

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Nick Ridenour, Jay King, & Brian Stoltz.

The show started with a ten-bell salute for Rowdy Roddy Piper...as Ben noted, it's sadly become a semi-regular tradition to acknowledge departed wrestlers.

Steve Davis of "Memories Of Elvis" sang the National Anthem...woo.

Kevin Lee Davidson(C) & Evan Gelistico(w/ LaMarcus Clinton) vs. "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson & "Da Bomb" Brian James for the Survivor Title:  For unexplained reasons, K.L.D.'s championship was at stake in this tag match if he was pinned or forced to submit.  K.L.D. had a dominant showing in a modified wrestle royal last month, pinning Jackson for the final win.  I've seen Davidson's match videos on YouTube and he does have more standard wrestling attire, but he competes in his "bodyguard" clothing at MMWA.  Surprised no one else has done the megaphone gimmick like Gelistico has started doing; hey, it worked for Jimmy Hart.  This was a solid opener that got a good chunk of time; James is an underrated guy in the St. Louis wrestling scene.  K.L.D. is progressing well and is good at working like the heavyweight that he is.  The finish saw Gary get Davidson in the Texas Cloverleaf, but L.M.C. literally slingshot himself over the ropes to break up the hold, causing the DQ in 15:34.  Jackson & James won the match, but K.L.D. retained his title.

Barackus vs. Tag Team Champion Ace Hawkins:  There was a slight size difference in this one, so Ace adopted the hit-and-run strategy(with emphasis on the "run" part).  Hawkins attacked the leg for most of the match, but things went downhill until his partner Brandon Espinosa stealthily approached the ringside area through the audience.  Barackus cut off Ace on the top rope, but hung onto the referee long enough for Espy to sneak in with a chair attack to the back.  The big man shrugged off the assault, so Espinosa desperately punted him in the Universal Weak Point(tm) before exiting stage right.  Hawkins capitalized with a somersaulting Ace Crusher off the top rope for the cheap win in 10:16.

Moondog Rover vs. Attlia Khan for the T.V. Title:  Khan made his MMWA debut by answering Moondog's open challenge in July; they brawled to a no-contest, so REMATCH~!  I wasn't expecting a technical classic and didn't get one, but darned if it wasn't one of the most over things on the show.  Sometimes people just like to watch two big guys slug it out.  Neither guy really came close to a decisive win and they managed to stretch it out to a 15:00 time-limit draw(!).  Moondog OVAH~! retained his title, but the fight wasn't over...referees and wrestlers had to separate them and Commissioner Jim Harris ordered a no-DQ rematch for September.

"The Black Panther" Johnathon Zulu(w/ Andrew "The Wolf" Wilder) vs. "The Enforcer" Jimmy D:  D subbed for "Wild Child" Billy Diamond for unstated reasons.  I was wondering if recent angles were indicating a stable of "old guard" guys like Diamond, D, Shaft, and Phil E. Blunt being all "GET OFF MY LAWN!" to the young punks.  This one didn't run long and D wasn't discrete enough with his baseball bat usage, drawing at DQ in 4:07.  Lot of screwy finishes on this show, sorry to say.  Wilder tried to help his partner but D leveled him with the bat as well...he was scheduled to face Espinosa later in the show, but that put his status in question.

Intermission~!  Racked up quite the concession tally for the weekend with two sodas and two bottles of water at this show; the building was hot and humid with all the people in there.  Didn't get any food since I put a pizza in the oven when I got home from PWE, so I wasn't too hungry.

Tommy Dallas vs. Tag Team Champion Brandon Espinosa:  Espy threw out an open challenge and was answered by Dallas.  Dallas' tights are reminiscient of Meat-era Shawn Stasiak with the boxer-briefs design...for added effect, he had dollar bills tucked into the waistband and said that he came to the show straight from "work"...heh.  An alternate-universe Espinosa might have appreciated Dallas' schtick(har har), but not the more serious MMWA version.  Dallas showed some impressive agility with a flurry of aerial moves...well done.  Insert opinion on "This Is Awesome" chants here, as his flurry prompted said chants from the fans.  Espy slowed things down by targeting the arm (he's been finishing with the cross-armbreaker lately).  Hawkins tried to interfere but was run off by Barackus, leading to Dallas scoring the upset win via DISTRACTION ROLLUP~!(tm Solomonster) in 10:15.

Clownman Jacko vs. Flaming Freddie Fury vs. LaMarcus Clinton(w/ Evan Gelistico):  The winner would get a future shot at the T.V. Title.  Fury took a liking to L.M.C.'s ring attire...ahem.  Heard a rumbling that K.L.D. and L.M.C. were swapped in the lineup; that would make more sense as the Survivor Championship is usually defended in multi-way matches.  L.M.C. ducked and ran for a lot of the match, though he got in some of his trademark aerial offense.  Jacko hit the Big Top Drop(middle-rope senton bomb) on Fury, but L.M.C. dumped Jacko out of the ring and stole the pin on Fury in 8:04.  That triple threat finish is becoming cliched, but then I watch a metric butt-ton of wrestling so I've seen it a lot.  Jim Harris congratulated L.M.C. on his win, but noted that he had a match with either Moondog or Attila Khan in his future...

J-Mal Swagg vs. "Superstar" Danny Adams for the Jr. Heavyweight Title:  This was a rare appearance for Adams as a fan favorite, though his previous MMWA appearance at the Cinco De Mayo show was also as a good guy.  After the controversy of the "training center match" in July, Swagg won a four-corner match for the vacated title and this was his first defense.  Adams had a competitive showing against Swagg at the aforementioned Cinco De Mayo event.  He also happened to be the referee in the controversial "illegal" match that resulted in the title vacancy in the first place.  This was a solid bout; still getting a read on Swagg since I haven't seen him as regularly as the other guys.  Swagg held onto the referee to deliver an unseen mule kick to the Universal Weak Point(second low blow spot of the night), then finished with the Zigzag(Zigswag?) in 8:11.

Da'Marius Jones vs. A.J. Williams for the held-up Heavyweight Title:  Last month, Williams defended his title against Jones and the match ended in a double-fall finish; Jones got Williams into a triangle choke and A.J. maneuvered his shoulders to the mat, but tapped out as the referee's hand hit the mat for the third count.  As a result, the title was declared "held up"...despite that, A.J. refused to give up the belt and came out with it for this matchup.  Survivor Champion Kevin Lee Davidson came out to watch the bout, drawing a positive reaction from his regular cheering section...now we get to the debate over fans "going against the grain" by booing the fan favorites and cheering the rulebreakers.  I look at it this way:  If someone's not getting the desired reaction, then they're not doing their job.  If I like a rulebreaker, I boo and heckle that person.  I don't know...maybe I'm just old and cranky here.  :)

Anywho...wrestling match~!  Jones hit a killer suicide dive in this one; a ton of people do the tope nowadays and too many of them barely touch the opponent, but this one looked great.  They started trading big moves near the end, but K.L.D. finally laid out Jones and then Williams with power moves for the no-contest finish in 11:09.  He held up both the Heavyweight and Survivor Title belts before leaving the ring, though he left the big belt behind(and A.J. left with it again)...

The show was fun though it was very screwjob-heavy...the triple threat match was the only match with a clean finish!  At least they set the table for coming attractions...I imagine we'll get Jones-Williams-K.L.D. for the title in September and they already set up Moondog-Khan III.

Two down, one to go...more on that in the next commentary.  Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.