PWE Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday afternoon's Pro Wrestling Epic show at the Randall D. Dalton Veterans' Park in Pontoon Beach, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

Coming off a week-long vacation from work (during which I went to a bunch of comedy shows and got a BIT of yard work done), I had a busy weekend as it related to wrestling show attendance.  I started off with Pro Wrestling Epic, which was part of the summer fair in Pontoon Beach and took place on Saturday afternoon.  Admission was free for the outdoor event...it's been a hot and humid summer so a lot of the onlookers stayed under a nearby canopy.  The wrestlers made their way to the ring area from the nearby Days Inn.  Of course, I had the foresight to wear ALL BLACK(Missouri Wrestling Revival T-shirt, denim shorts, and my customary headwear)...way to go, brain.

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon, who left his suit jacket at the timekeeper table due to the heat.  Your referee was Richard White, who had a REALLY long afternoon...I'll give him a pass on wearing shorts.

"Risky Business" Everett Connors vs. Laurence Johnson(w/ Sean Orleans):  The opener featured a trio who recently parted ways with the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance (along with Austin Blackburn).  The details are sketchy and are best left to those closer to the situation, though Orleans has been particularly outspoken about his side of things.  The two feuded over Connors' Jr. Heavyweight Title, though Johnson was never able to capture the championship; Johnson was returning from a recent injury.

Orleans' pre-match promo created a particularly memorable incident as he trashed the town and threw out a few insults at the Charlie Daniels Band(who were scheduled to perform at the fair later in the day).  As it turned out, someone at the fair heard the insults out of context and got REALLY ticked off, confronting Ben Simon and then attempting to confront Orleans.  Mephisto had to go out in his wrestling attire to defuse the situation and it resulted in Orleans being escorted off the fairgrounds by two policemen!  To the best of my knowledge, this was NOT a planned angle...Charlie Daniels Band is serious business.  (As it turned out, the guy in question was actually the mayor of Pontoon Beach!)

OH, HEY, wrestling match.  If Orleans' presence was supposed to be a factor, it didn't show.  These two know each other well so they had a solid opener.  A less-emphasized thing about outdoor shows, especially in the summertime, is that the ring mat gets REALLY hot in the full sunlight.  Orleans' pre-match promo put over Johnson's lariat as a lethal weapon, so it made sense that Johnson would finish with it; he got the clean victory in 8:57.

Clownman Jacko vs. "The Enforcer" Jimmy D:  I had a conversation with a friend about the former Jackson Whitechapel this past weekend...it's not a character for main events, but it could eventually lead to a shift in attitude that WOULD propel him to a higher-profile spot on the card.  For now, he's a kid-friendly crowd-pleasing midcarder who gives out balloons and paints faces during intermissions.  Not everyone has to be a major player at the same time, if that makes sense.  At any rate, this bout was mostly a contained brawl...the referee was knocked down(which had to suck when you consider that he had to officiate the rest of the show) and Jimmy D brought his bat into the ring.  Jacko got the bat away from him, but pulled the now-classic Eddy Guerrero trick of throwing the bat to his opponent and dropping to the mat as if he had been hit.  It took the referee some time to recover(leading a few people to wonder if he was legitimately hurt!), but Jimmy D pounded the bat on the mat with the intent to do some damage with it.  That finally snapped the official out of his slumber and the DQ occurred in 6:53, giving The Clownman the win.  D dropped Jacko with a post-match double-underhook DDT and looked to do more damage, but Billy McNeil ran into the ring and D backed off.

LaMarcus Clinton vs. "Infamous" Tyler Copeland:  Copeland claimed to have gotten a restraining order against Barackus since he was out of his weight class...no idea why the big man wasn't there(he did compete at the MMWA show later that day).  L.M.C. came out for an impromptu challenge after Copeland declared that he had the day off.  Thought that these two worked pretty well together and would like to see them in a longer match in the future.  I've become a big fan of L.M.C. recently; he's shown great versatility in performing as either a fan favorite or a rulebreaker(depending on the promotion).  Dude has impressive agility and I like me some flippies.  For his part, Copeland's kinda underrated; the Wrestling Invades America crew got a bad rap from a previous experience with another area promotion, but most of those guys are no longer with the group and their product has improved.  Could be rose-colored glasses on the part of someone who doesn't know the whole story, but that's just my take on things.  The finish saw L.M.C. jump on Copeland's shoulders and spin around into a rana attempt, but Copeland blocked and turned it into a major sitout powerbomb for the victory in 4:53.  The match was billed as a top-contenders match, so it's likely that Copeland will be getting the next shot at the belt...

"The Legacy" Leland Race vs. Leone Mephisto:  Mephisto is never one to shy away from inflammatory remarks; he came out swinging with a lot of trash-talk about second-generation wrestlers riding the coattails of their famous relatives.  He vowed to prove that the name of Harley Race meant "jack $#!+", severely ticking off his opponent.  Mephisto attempted to outwrestle Leland in the early going...with little success.  Tempers flared and it turned into more of a fight, something that swayed the momentum in Mephisto's favor...but Harley was known for his toughness and Leland is no exception.  Race picked up the victory after a full-nelson faceplant(similar to Darren Young's old finisher) in 6:56.

Intermission~!  Concession count:  Two bottles of water, one can of Mountain Dew.  The merits of comparison shopping came into play as I bought my first water bottle for two dollars at a food stand, then saw that the food stand RIGHT NEXT TO IT had bottles of water for one dollar each.  *headdesk*

"The Irish Luchador" Billy McNeil vs. Steven Kennedy:  These guys had only crossed paths a few times and I can remember being pumped for their first encounter in the days of the Lethal Wrestling Alliance.  The personalities are a great contrast as Kennedy doesn't like McNeil's non-serious attitude toward The Biz(tm).  It's cool that Kennedy is entering new territory as a fan favorite in other promotions, but he's just SOOOOO good as a heel and is one of the best trash-talkers.  One of my favorite backstage stories from the Gateway Championship Wrestling days got me thinking about how much fun a Jerry Lynn-Steven Kennedy match would have been.  (LASER TAG~!)  I had to get a closer seat for the match due to the potential for quippage...bwahahaha.  I'm definitely biased(see line two), but this was my favorite match of the show.  Kennedy cut off Billy on the top rope and took him down to the mat with a version of the Assassination(Angel's Wings).  He followed that up with the moonsault for the win in 11:14...well done, gentlemen.  Billy told a great story on Facebook about getting a balloon from a young fan who wanted to cheer him up after the loss...aww.

Skinny Timmy vs. Karim Brigante(w/ Miss Monica Passeri):  This was scheduled to be a midget match between Timmy and "Baby Jesus", but Jesus wasn't there.  As a result, newer World League Wrestling trainees Brigante and Monica got the spot on the show; they're legitimately from Italy and both wrestled there before moving to the United States.  I'm not sure what Timmy was trying to accomplish with his pre-match promo, but he seemed taken aback when the fans booed his reference to Obamacare...know your audience.  Karim and Monica came out with the standard-issue evil-foreigner schtick, leaving Timmy to encourage "USA" chants in an effort to get the fans on his side.  This was my first time seeing Brigante or Monica; I look forward to seeing more of them in the near future, perhaps at the WLW show later this month.  The match was relatively brief(I resisted the urge to say "short", OKAY?!?) and ended in a DQ when Timmy blatantly kicked Brigante in the groin at the 3:31 mark; he paid for his actions as Karim dropped him with a Whiplash.

Selene Grey vs. Stacey O'Brien:  I had seen Selene's name previously but this was my first time seeing one of her matches in person; she's billed from Uruguay and wrestles in the Chicago area.  I'm not sure if these two had wrestled before this; I think they had one prior meeting in WLW.  The match had some rough spots, sorry to say; I wondered if the heat was a factor for a few people who weren't used to the conditions (people got really sweaty after just a short time in the ring).  Stacey was the rulebreaker in this matchup, for those keeping score.  Grey got the upset win via small package in 5:31 and seemed really exhausted afterwards; hopefully I'll get to see her again under better circumstances.

Brandon Aarons vs. "The Millenial" Danny Adams for the Heavyweight Title:  I need a scorecard to keep track of Adams' nicknames across multiple promotions...heh.  They had a really good main-event matchup with some good near-falls toward the end...it couldn't have been easy to wrestle in the summer sun like many people did on this day.  Adams worked on the leg for most of the bout (he has won previous bouts with the Texas Cloverleaf), but Aarons made El Big Comeback and won with the close-range superkick in 11:58.  Woo.

Officially met Leland Race afterwards; don't think I'd had an extended conversation with him before this.  I would see a few of the guys later in the day at South Broadway, but that's a story for another commentary...stay tuned.  Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

P.S. We are all marks.