Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's St. Louis Anarchy "Circus Maximus Part 2" show at the Knights Of Columbus Hall^H^H^HSpaulding Hall Club in Alton, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
Did most of the pontificating in Part 1, so let's get right into it...
Your ring announcer was Sean Orleans; your referees were Brandon Tolle, Austin Blackburn, & P.J. Drummond.
The show started with a promo by members of BOSS: Heavyweight Champion Gary Jay, Jeremy Wyatt, Christian Rose, Jordan Lacey, Dorian Victor, and Greg Jovi. They had a rough night on Friday but this night would be different, yadda yadda. Dorian addressed a "weak link" in the group...and Jovi bailed out of the ring and ran away screaming because he thought they were talking about him! They went over the previous night's results and teased going after Wyatt(since he dropped the fall in the main event), but then turned around and attacked Jordan Lacey for his loss to the upstart Donovan Danhausen. At that point, Jovi hilariously ran back to the ring and celebrated("IT'S NOT ME!"). Not sure what Lacey does from here...guess we'll see.
"The Money" Matt Cage vs. "Zesty" Zakk Sawyers: These two haven't interacted in St. Louis Anarchy, but they had a brief alliance in Pro Wrestling Collision when Zakk was an underling for Team Overkill(Cage & Christian Rose). Alex Castle came out to bad-mouth Cage a few minutes into the match, but nothing came of it. Sawyers worked on Cage's arm and hand, something that eventually paid off when Cage hurt himself while executing his Money Clip finisher(fireman's-carry into a roundhouse right). That allowed Zakk to get the flash pin via rollup in 14:05(!). We got the mutual respect thing afterwards, but then Castle attacked Cage with a chair as he was exiting. Castle delivered another kick to the groin and Pedigree in the ring, then decided to enlighten us...he felt like Cage was leaving him behind by getting solo bookings in bigger promotions like EVOLVE and Full Impact Pro. He thought Cage was acting like he was too good for their tag team...see, good turns make sense in the mind of the person who turns. Castle stuck around since he was in the next matchup...
Donovan Danhausen vs. Ricky Starks vs. Justin D'Air vs. Mike Outlaw vs. "The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan vs. Alex Castle: This was as schmozzarific as you'd expect from a multi-way match like this. It was D'Air's debut for the promotion...he and Outlaw did a few sequences together since they've had some one-on-one bouts. His ropewalk spot didn't come as well as it could have...curse that low ceiling! Castle/McFinnegan/Starks actually got together for a Shield-style triple-team spike powerbomb on Danhausen, only to immediately turn on each other...heh. Castle got the pin on Danhausen after the Pedigree in 7:06.
Angelus Layne vs. "Dirty" Andy Dalton: This promised to be...something. That "something" turned out to be an extended sexual harrassment on Dalton's part...eep. Thankfully, Angelus made him pay for that...I'm pretty sure that was the first time a "Kill The Rapist" chant had ever happened at a wrestling show. Angelus finished with the spider-style German suplex off the top rope in 7:36...Dalton attacked after the bell for the second night in a row, but this time Outlaw made the save to stop a piledriver attempt.
The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell) vs. Mr. Danny Adams & Mr. Everett Connors of The Cause(w/ Mr. Evan Gelistico & Mr. Adam Caster): Viking War Party = brawl all over the place with weapons galore (plus fans running for cover). Despite the presence of the other Cause members at ringside, the Vikings came out on top; Rudolph powerbombed Adams, then held him upside-down as Parnell jumped off the second rope to dropkick a chair into Adams' face...OW. That allowed Rudolph to pin Adams in 10:00.
"The Psycho Killer" Tommaso Ciampa vs. Christian Rose: After being a heel by default on Friday, Ciampa was the clear fan favorite in this one. Ciampa's shown a lot more personality in recent indie appearances since leaving Ring Of Honor...he wiped himself with Rose's ring jacket, much to Rose's dismay. As a recent fan of Shinsuke Nakamura, I appreciated the "BOM AYE" logo on his kneepad...heh. He was one of the MVPs of the weekend as both of his matches got great feedback from the fans in attendance. One advantage of indie double-shots is that psychology from the first show can carry over to the second, and it worked in this particular case. Rose targeted the leg a few times, but it didn't really pay off until the ending: Ciampa pulled down his kneepad and went for the knee trembler(the move that won him the previous night's match), but Rose avoided it and Ciampa appeared to injure his knee on the turnbuckle. That allowed Rose to get him in the No-Leaf Clover(Liontamer-style Boston crab) in the middle of the ring...scoring a surprising tapout victory in 20:03! PSYCHOLOGY~! Ciampa got a great ovation after the matchup.
Intermission~! Had either one or two root beers on this night...living dangerously, I know.
Steve O. Reno vs. Sugar Dunkerton: This was a battle of fan favorites that turned into a string of comedy spots. Reno used a groin-stretching hold similiar to one he used against Mikey McFinnegan on Friday and Dunkerton's ad-libbed complaints about the hold's, er, effectiveness were hilarious. Reno proclaimed that he was also a two-sport superstar, donning a headband and miming a tennis serve. He went to the top rope in an attempt to deliver the dreaded "Tennis Elbow", but Dunkerton kept rolling away from his corner...bwahahaha. They had a slow-motion sequence as well...this wasn't for the purists, I would imagine. I expected Dunkerton to win in his SLA debut, but Reno scored a slight upset with the Blue Thunder Bomb in 15:29(!). Chatted with him briefly, it sounded like he had a good time and hoped to return soon. Woo.
Jojo Bravo vs. "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt(w/ Greg Jovi): Goodie, face vs. heel. These two crossed paths in Pro Wrestling Championship Series as they were on opposite sides of the Season One finale. Jojo eliminated Wyatt with a flash pin in that matchup and even used the same victory roll sequence for a good false finish in this one. Wyatt spent a lot of the match jawing with a little kid in the front row...bwahahaha. During his entrance, he trash-talked one of the guys next to me and joked about him hanging out with the Wayne's World guy whose hair is OBVIOUSLY a wig...err... (Oddly enough, I have been asked if this is really my hair. Yes, I'm overdue for a trim.) At any rate, they had a good matchup that ended with the Lightning Spiral, giving Wyatt the three-count in 12:21. Afterwards, Wyatt argued with the kid at ringside again, then ran away when the kid advanced towards him. *snicker*
Mat Fitchett vs. "The Madman" Paco Gonzalez: Paco goes to school at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and a lot of his college buddies usually come to the shows to see him. Apparently they were being particularly obnoxious on this night, so that turned the fans FIERCELY pro-Fitchett and anti-Paco for the night. (I was on the opposite side of the ring so I'm going by other accounts.) The two worked a face/face matchup despite the partisan crowd with several really good near-falls for Paco...the dueling fan support got really heated at times with chants along the lines of "F Those Fratboys". The finish didn't help the situation as Fitchett hit the cradle piledriver and Paco appeared to get a shoulder off the mat at three, but the referee called it a pinfall anyway in 12:20. Some of the "fratboys" moved close to the ring as if to cut off Fitchett's exit and one of them threw a plastic cup at him...that convinced the SLA crew to politely(?) encourage the group to leave. They made a big production out of leaving the building, jawing with fans on the way out...wrestlers had to leave the dressing room to ensure that they all left the premises. Fun times? (Given past experience, they probably would have left after Paco's match anyway...)
The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. Mr. Adam Caster & Mr. Evan Gelistico of The Cause for the Tag Team Titles: Mr. Adams & Mr. Connors didn't come to ringside with their stablemates, which was a red flag right out of the gate. Big ol' brawl once again, but Adams & Connors ran in when it looked like the champs were on their way to another victory. It took a quadruple-team Shield-style powerbomb with a neckbreaker added, but Gelistico pinned Mason in 9:14 and we have NEWWWWW Tag Team Champions! The Hooligans dropped the belts in only their second defense, but I'm sure that story is far from over...
Promoter Pierre Abernathy brought out Paco Gonzalez to speak to the fans; he was a bit soft-spoken, but the fans chanted "Sorry Paco" for their venom in his earlier matchup. He apologized for his friends' attitudes and actions and all seemed to be smoothed over, thankfully...
Gerald James(w/ Dorian Victor) vs. Davey Vega for the Heavyweight Title, no time limit: These two went to a sixty-minute draw at Yuletide Terror, thus the stipulation on this rematch. It didn't take long for this one to get out of hand...Vega took out Victor with a suicide dive, then planted James with a dive into a DDT that left him bloody. Vega attempted to powerbomb James into the wall, but James countered with a rana that sent him head-first into the wall...eep. Vega made a comeback in the ring and nearly scored the win with the Sharpshooter, but Gerald made it to the ropes. The fight spilled out of the ring again and this time Vega delivered the powerbomb into the wall, then powerbombed him into the ringpost...ouch. Vega's brainbuster onto the knee only got 2 1/2 on this occasion. Gerald hit the Michinoku Driver, but Vega was running on adrenaline(or FIGHTING SPIRIT~!) and jumped right up...he quickly hit another brainbuster onto the knee, but GERALD jumped right up...he dropped Vega with one shot(think it was a palm strike) and collapsed on top of him...for the pin? That finish seemed to come out of nowhere(at the 23:15 mark)...weirdness.
If Vega's not the one to end Gerald James' title reign, I have no idea who it WILL be...the next shows are in November, so he'll pass the TWO-YEAR mark as champion! Someone told me that Johnny Gargano is still owed a title shot, so I guess that's a possibility. D.J. Shiima Xion is scheduled for the next double-shot, facing Vega on the Friday show.
The upcoming weeks look like this:
-Saturday 8/29: World League Wrestling in Troy, MO (Ric Flair, Tom Pritchard, Naomichi Marufuji, Gedo)
-Saturday 9/5: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO
-Sunday 9/6: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in St. Louis, MO (4 Hands Brewery)
-Saturday 9/12: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 9/19: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL
-Sunday 9/20: Wrestling Invades America in Edwardsville, IL
-Sunday 9/27: High Risk Wrestling in Cahokia, IL
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
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