Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's St. Louis Anarchy "Circus Maximus Part 1" show at the Knights Of Columbus Hall^H^H^HSpaulding Hall Club in Alton, Illinois. (Same venue, new name.)
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
With SLA running less frequently than usual, they've switched to consistent double-shots for the weekend(Friday and Saturday). That left me with a tough choice on Saturday between SLA and Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling, as I hadn't missed an East Carondelet show in quite a while. I'm in a position where I want to see everything possible, but sometimes there are two or even three shows on the same night within a reasonable distance. In a sense, I guess it's a nice problem for wrestling fans to have...variety can be a good thing. I didn't know if I should have felt more obligated to go to SICW as one of their television commentators.
The audience turnout was pretty good for both shows and the fans were enthusiatic for just about everything, something which definitely helped the shows. I think Saturday had a few more fans since it had the title bout for the weekend, plus Saturday shows tend to draw better than Fridays from my experience.
Your ring announcer was Sean Orleans(who did a fine job despite a bit of heckling from the Anarchy faithful). Your referees were Brandon Tolle, P.J. Drummond, and Austin Blackburn.
Ricky Starks vs. Bolt Brady(w/ Greg Jovi): Got used to seeing Brady as a fan favorite, so it's a bit weird to see him as a rulebreaker here. Starks hasn't really been a regular around here, though he appeared at the previous Anarchy double-shot. He's the current titleholder in Anarchy Championship Wrestling in Texas, for reference; he recently unified their Heavyweight and Hardcore Titles. I would have leaned toward Bolt to win here as a push for the BOSS stable, though I don't know if Starks' championship status in the sister promotion made a difference in that regard. This was a solid opener as they kept things grounded for the most part; to be fair, that's sort of a necessity with the lower ceiling in the venue. Starks won with Angel's Wings in 9:59(thank you Sean Orleans for announcing match times) to start off a rough night for BOSS.
Jojo Bravo vs. "The Madman" Paco Gonzalez: This was a battle of fan favorites, though Jojo is more established in the promotion. These bouts in SLA seem to turn into FIGHTING SPIRIT~! battles with a lot of fast-paced, high-impact offense and near-falls. Both guys are definitely capable of more grounded affairs, particularly Jojo from what I've seen of him in Pro Wrestling Championship Series. This was probably a bit more grounded than your highest-octane Anarchy affairs, I will say. Bravo won with the Samurai Driver(Ki-Krusher...WA-SHING~!) in 7:11.
Steve O. Reno vs. "The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan: This was shaping up to be another face/face matchup with a bit of comedy thrown in, but they shared a beer before the matchup and McFinnegan got mad at Reno for stealing a drink from his beer can. Frosty beverages are serious business in St. Louis Anarchy, something that would come up again later in the show. Even with the setup, it shaped up to be a battle of fan favorites for the most part. Mikey nearly got counted out by Brandon Tolle while stealing drinks from ringside fans, then walked into a Blue Thunder Bomb for the Reno victory in 7:33. He protested that he was distracted, but he and Reno made nice afterwards.
"The Money" Matt Cage vs. Alex Castle: KENTUCKY BUFFET EXPLODES~! More importantly: Fan favorite vs. rulebreaker~! Cage started off the match with a huge suicide dive when Castle tried to bail out of the ring...that was a popular match-starter for the weekend, I noticed. They brawled on the floor for several minutes before finally getting back between the ropes. They had a good intense grudge match; Castle notched the cheap win via kick to the Universal Weak Point(tm) and Pedigree in 7:37. This feud MUST CONTINUE~!
The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell) vs. Adam Caster & Evan Gelistico of The Cause(w/ Danny Adams & Everett Connors): As with The Commission in Metro Pro Wrestling, the Cause members specifically go by proper names: Mr. Caster, Mr. Gelistico, Mr. Adams, & Mr. Connors. Caster is the artist formerly known as Adam Raw...he had said that he once cared about the fans, but they didn't care about him when he and Gerald James destroyed their bodies in a 10,000 Thumbtacks Match two years ago. Gelistico seems to bring the megaphone with him at all times nowadays...heh. This was as wild as you'd expect and Blackburn got a baptism by fire as the official; best be prepared to head for higher ground any time the Vikings are on the warpath. The finish saw Parnell isolated by The Cause as Adams whacked him in the head with The Rulebook(tm)...that allowed Caster to finish with a wheelbarrow suplex in 13:45.
Intermission~! Had one can of root beer, then my esteemed comedy colleague Al Canal bought me a second soda a bit later in the show. Hadn't talked to him in a while.
Donovan Danhausen vs. Gorgeous Jordan Lacey(w/ Greg Jovi): This seemed to be set up as an easy win for Lacey over a new competitor. They seemed to have some early rough spots but brought it together over the course of the match. Danhausen avoided a blind charge into the corner by floating over into a rollup, scoring the flash pin in 4:47! That made BOSS 0-2 on the night...
"Zesty" Zakk Sawyers vs. "The Psycho Killer" Tommaso Ciampa: This was Ciampa's SLA debut; he's still using the Talking Heads song for his theme music, which is cool by me. Ciampa established himself as a heel for the night by dumping beer into a nearby trash can...THAT CAD~! Smart Mark Video posted the match on their YouTube channel, if you're interested in viewing it for yourself. This was as hard-hitting an affair as you'd expect out of a Ciampa match, but Sawyers earned respect by hanging in there with the former Ring Of Honor Television Champion. One of the sickest spots occurred when Ciampa lifted Zakk in vertical suplex position outside the ring, then rammed him upside-down into the ringpost! Really liked this matchup...Ciampa pulled down the kneepad to set up his knee trembler, scoring the win in 16:23. Cue MUTUAL RESPECT~! afterwards.
Mike Outlaw vs. "Dirty" Andy Dalton: Dalton was substituting for Sugar Dunkerton who apparently double-booked himself (he wrestled at another show on Friday, but did compete for SLA on the Saturday show). Really liked Dalton's character which can be summed up as "unsanitary"...heh. Hadn't seen him in a while; think he worked for one of the earlier Central States Championship Wrestling shows a few years back. This was Outlaw's debut weekend for SLA; there were some fans in the attendance who knew him from his other work in the area, so he got a good reaction from the audience. This was the most traditional face-vs.-heel singles bout of the night, if not the weekend. Outlaw got the flash pin with a small package in 8:42, but Dalton attacked him after the bell and laid him out with a piledriver. Outlaw managed to get up and return to the dressing room area under his own power...this issue isn't quite settled.
The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. Danny Adams & Everett Connors of The Cause(w/ Adam Caster & Evan Gelistico) for the Tag Team Titles: This was the first title defense for the inaugural champs since winning the tournament at the previous double-shot in April. The Cause debuted by attacking the brothers Cutter after their title win, plus they had the momentum from Caster & Gelistico's win earlier in the night. This was another wild brawl with all four members of The Cause involved in the matchup; Blackburn again drew the short stray as the official. Lots of weapon play in this one; I noticed that Tolle was assigned to the more straightforward matches of the weekend while Blackburn and Drummond got the bouts with more potential to get out of hand. At any rate, The Cause got some good heel heat as I expected. They're a great heel stable for this promotion as they push for actual enforcement of The Rules(tm). Wonder if they'll recruit Tolle as their Bill Alfonso in the near future? The Anarchy fans already hate that guy. (Actually, I noticed that Blackburn officiated all four of their matches for the weekend...hmm...) Anywho...Devin pinned Adams after their wheelbarrow/second-rope jumping DDT finisher in 15:24 and the champs retained. However, Gelistico challenged the Cutters to face himself and Adam Caster the following night...Devin & Mason accepted, match set.
Davey Vega, Mat Fitchett, & Angelus Layne vs. Heavyweight Champion Gerald James, "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt, & Christian Rose(w/ Greg Jovi): Dorian Victor was absent on this night, so Jovi was at ringside for this one. This show had the interesting format of lumping the strongest characters into the one six-man tag match on top, leaving room to establish different people on the undercard. At one point, the BOSS trio "borrowed" the house microphone to do running commentary on their abuse of Fitchett; Rose and Wyatt had a particularly good time with it. I've become a big fan of Angelus Layne in recent times; really cool gal to chat with and she's really good in the ring. She's been turning heads in Texas recently and has worked for SHIMMER quite a bit; hopefully she'll get the attention of the right people in the near future. Vega got the hot tag, bonzo gonzo, Vega pinned Wyatt after the brainbuster onto the knee in 22:02. Woo. Lots of I Want Da Belt posturing set up for the following night's title bout...
Stay tuned for part two...Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
No comments:
Post a Comment