Outlaw Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Sunday's Outlaw Wrestling show at the Community Youth Center in Centralia, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

Outlaw Wrestling is a new promotion run by The Hooligans out of Centralia, about an hour east of the greater St. Louis area.  I had somewhat lame reasons for passing on their inaugural show a few months ago(longer drive, plus Sunday being my typical "unwinding" day).  I was invited to be a guest on the Sergio Revenge internet radio show(http://station.voscast.com/54a8689c55fbd/) and carpooled with Sergio to the event, so it was nice to get a ride to a show instead of driving the whole way.  Hopefully we did the show justice and added some insight along the way...with my radio and commentary experience, I think I was able to contribute a bit.

They had a good turnout for the event...the gymnasium got really warm at times, especially when it filled up with more people.  I heard that was a thing at the first show in the venue as well.

(NOTE: Match lengths are approximate as I had trouble hearing the bell at times.)

Your ring announcer was Rolan Greene; I didn't know the names of the two referees.

The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. The Firm(Dustin LeVay & Slade Sludge)(w/ Winston McNastybones) for the Full Impact Pro Tag Team Titles:  The Cutters added to their already-impressive resume of tag team championships by defeating The Savages(Eddie Graves & Teddy Stigma) the previous weekend in Florida.  Given FIP's affiliation with EVOLVE, perhaps this means that they'll be on the radar of some significant players on the national independent scene.  The Facebook match graphic had Sludge's partner as "Dustin Starr" and I identified him as such until being corrected the following day...guessing they're just alternate names for the same guy.  "Winston McNastybones" gets the award for most spectacular wrestling manager name, for the record.  Sludge is painfully skinny-looking and I compared him to a white version of Ring Of Honor's Cheeseburger(only taller).

Anywho:  Wrestling match!  I quickly discovered that Outlaw Wrestling operates under an ECW-style mentality as the rules are extremely relaxed; weapons and other illegalities came into play in several matchups whether they were announced as no-DQ/hardcore or not.  While the match started out as a chaotic brawl with chairs coming into play, it eventually settled down(somewhat) into the normal tag bout formula.  They had a couple of good false finishes with the two challengers trying for dogpile pins(which were counted).  I was seeing The Firm for the first time(along with many others on this show), so I may not have a good read on them just yet.  (A bit of research tells me that Sludge competed once for St. Louis Anarchy as Slade Reithemeyer, so I saw him once before in an eight-man tag.)  The Hooligans won with a new finisher as Mason did a double-stomp off the top rope to add oomph to Devin's sitout Tombstone on LeVay...ouchie.  That scored Devin the pinfall in 10:32.

Lethal Injection(Brad & Briar Mercury) vs. Danny Adams & Randy Ray:  Had seen Ray on Crimefighter's Nose Bleed Seats YouTube show but this was my first time seeing him in person.  Had never seen Lethal Injection before; their tights had a thermometer motif with "MB" on the side(Mercury Brothers?).  (Thanks to Devin Cutter for filling me in on some names, BTW.)  The Mercurys are from Arkansas and I want to look up more of their matches on YouTube soon.  They had the Rockers vibe about them with the fast-paced style and tandem offense; myself and Sergio actually referred to them as the "Shawn Michaels" and "Marty Jannetty" of the team on the broadcast (though Brad had short hair).  Adams bailed on his partner out of nowhere, leaving Ray to be pinned by Briar after a pretty cool finisher (wheelbarrow pickup by one into an advanced curbstomp by the other) in 7:15.

Cash Borden(w/ garbage can) vs. Hellspawn vs. Weylin The Mangler(w/ thumbtack bat), hardcore match:  I misidentified the large masked gentleman as "Waylon The Maimer" on the broadcast(it wasn't always easy to hear the ring announcer); found a whole lotta nothing about him online.  It was billed as a "Legos-And-Army-Men Hardcore Match" and those were the contents of Borden's can o' plunder...anyone who has ever stepped on either of those items can sympathize.  Hellspawn was a masked competitor billed from South America; his Facebook says he's from Chile and now hails from Mexico.  The Cagematch website has a match history for him in both Mexico and Chile, so I'll say that he's legit in that regard; will need to look up more of his work.  He recently competed for the Insane Clown Posse's Juggalo Championship Wrestling and was in the U.S. for that reason.  Had never seen any of these three before this show, but I did recognize Borden's name from central Illinois shows; he was definitely the fan favorite as several people had signs for him.

It can be tough to gauge a person's talent in a multi-way match, especially one like this with a lot of bells and whistles.  Many weapons came into play, as you'd guess.  The Legos and Army Men were spilled out onto the mat for some rather painful landings on the part of the match participants.  Borden is another guy I'll need to look up...as I said, I was "going in cold" with regards to a lot of people on this show.  I wasn't sure if it would be Cash or Hellspawn coming out on top, but Cash is the main regular of the three as he competed on the first show.  Borden got the win with a double-underhook DDT on Weylin(onto the debris in the ring) in 9:20.

Intermission~!  They had to clean up the mess from the previous match, understandably.  The heat and my consistent yammering meant I had to load up on hydration...I had three cans of soda, one bottle of water, and a hot dog(with Sergio footing the bill for some of that).

Manimal vs. "The Alternative" Ozzie Gallagher:  This was Gallagher's return to the ring after a recent back injury.  I hadn't seen Manimal in a long time; he had a match with Chaz Wesson at Independent Hardcore Wrestling(Mephisto's previous promotion) several years ago.  He's got a style similar to Moondog Rover, except with more of a "caveman" motif.  Manimal dominated a lot of the bout, but Danny Adams ran interference to cause a distraction.  That allowed Gallagher to hit Manimal from behind with his own bone and score the cheap(?) win in 6:51.  (If the weapons in the other non-hardcore matches were fine, a ref distraction may not have been necessary...heh.)

"American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph vs. "Zesty" Zakk Sawyers vs. "The Bad Wolf" Blake Belakis:  This was billed as a contenders' match for the next shot at the Heavyweight Title.  Hey, I know all of these guys!  I've known Rudolph since he was a regular LWA "Superfan", eventually becoming a full-fledged wrestler with Dynamo Pro and other promotions.  He's been branching out quite a bit, including a six-man tag in Jersey All-Pro Wrestling where the Viking War Party faced The Hooligans and Necro Butcher.  Belakis is the current High Risk Wrestling Heavyweight Champion and occasionally competes for St. Louis Anarchy; he's wrestled for EVOLVE and Full Impact Pro as well.  Sawyers has become more of a regular with Anarchy in recent times; he was once a flunky for Team Overkill(Matt Cage & Christian Rose) in Pro Wrestling Collision.  This was a really good matchup; Sawyers and Belakis kept trying to work together against the larger Rudolph only to repeatedly double-cross each other(THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE~!).  They got it together long enough to take out Rudolph with a Conchairto on the floor, but The Viking finally got back into the ring to clean house.  Rudolph took down Sawyers by chokeslamming him off the top rope, but Belakis stunned The Viking with a palm strike and covered Sawyers...for two and a half.  It sure didn't LOOK like a kickout, but the ref called it a near-fall...not sure what happened there.  Either way, Belakis grabbed the nearest chair and wiped out Sawyers with it...THAT got the legitimate pinfall in about 19:00(there was a lot of hesitation between the pin and the closing bell).

Jeff Gant vs. Big Chris Mack:  Mack's a big boy, billed at over 400 pounds.  That made him over twice the size of Gant, who probably didn't venture from Texas to the Midwest for nights like this.  Gant got in some token shots but this was pretty one-sided; Mack left his feet for a cannonball on Gant as he was slumped in the corner.  Mack dragged Gant to center ring and delivered a 400-pound standing moonsault(!) for the win in 2:16.  The post-match saw Mack demand better competition...something which caught the ear of Alexandre Rudolph.  Rudolph challenged Mack to face him at the next show(October 11th) and the big man wasn't as quick to step up to someone closer to his size...

The Goon Squad(Deadly Dale & Idol Bane)(w/ Luscious Leo) vs. The Viking War Party("The Gordiest Viking" Frank Wyatt & "The Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell) for the Tag Team Titles:  The Goons upset The Hooligans at the inaugural show to become the first Outlaw Tag Champs.  They helpfully had their names on their attire so I could tell them apart.  I hadn't seen Wyatt in a while; he was a regular for Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling for a little while and was dubbed "Frankie The Thumper" by Larry Matysik.  Parnell started out as a rookie for Dynamo Pro and was a "Gentleman" for a while, but he earned Rudolph's respect in a series of matches and Rudolph decided to introduce him to the ways of the Viking.  The Hooligans and Viking War Party have battled across the country, including several memorable bouts in the Midwest.  I had always seen the Rudolph/Parnell combo of the Vikings, so this was my first time seeing Wyatt with the group.

This was another wild bout as they fought all over the gymnasium, using several unique weapons like vinyl records, a construction barricade, a ladder, and a flat-screen TV!  Parnell used the ladder to climb onto the basketball hoop in the gym before diving off the side of the hoop frame onto the Goon Squad.  The Goons finally resorted to drastic measures to win, knocking Parnell out of the ring before Dale choked out Wyatt with a plastic bag over his head for the "submission" win in 15:05.  Rudolph ran off the champs, but the damage was done.

Bull Bronson vs. "The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan(w/ Zakk Sawyers) for the Heavyweight Title:  Bronson beat Sawyers to become the inaugural titleholder, so the other member of the Roscoe Eat Lisa tag team was trying his luck.  Bull was the fan favorite in this one, which was a change of pace; I'm used to seeing him as a rulebreaker in other promotions like SICW and Collision.  Due to the environment, Zakk interfered pretty freely and it was essentially a two-on-one situation.  McFinnegan let Sawyers fight on his own at the previous show and he was unsuccessful, so I guess they felt like they needed to double-team the big man to beat him.  Zakk blatantly broke up a pin attempt after Bronson hit a Vader Bomb(the move that won him the title in the first place), but Bronson fought off the assault and finished off McFinnegan with a sitout powerbomb in 15:27.  Woo.

All hell broke loose after the match as LeVay and Sludge attacked Bronson with McFinnegan and Sawyers joining in the assault.  That brought out The Hooligans...which brought out The Goon Squad...which brought out The Viking War Party...and the locker room emptied for a huge brawl!  Everyone fought all over the gymnasium and out the doors to close the show...I was a bit worried about Hardcore Andy(who was working security) as he was accidentally struck in the chaos and was down on the floor for a minute or two...he said he was okay once he got back to his feet, so hopefully it wasn't anything serious.

Thus ended a long weekend...I appreciate Sergio Revenge for having me on the show as a guest.  Got a Butterfinger Blizzard on the way home because I'm an aspiring fat guy, or something.  :P

Anywho, this coming weekend has a double-shot for St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL.  Unfortunately Little Guido(who was scheduled to wrestle on the Saturday event) cancelled earlier today, but they should still be good shows.  Also, SICW has its monthly show in East Carondelet, IL on Saturday...tough choice there.  The summer wraps up on Saturday the 29th with World League Wrestling in Troy, MO...they'll have several special guests in the house, including Tom Pritchard, Naomichi Marufuji, Gedo, and some guy named Ric Flair.

Starting off September, Dynamo will have a rare double-shot as they return to Fenton, MO on Saturday the 5th and then debut in a new venue(Four Hands Brewery in St. Louis, MO) on Sunday the 6th.  Oddly, it's the third year in a row that Dynamo has had a wrestling show on my birthday...bwahahaha.  Davey Richards & Angelina Love had been scheduled to appear on both shows, but now they'll only be appearing at the Sunday event.  Matt Sydal will be making a homecoming of sorts, appearing at both shows...on top of that, Michael Elgin will be returning from Japan to appear at the Saturday show in Fenton.  Good times...hope to see you at the rasslin shows.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.