WLW Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's World League Wrestling show at the Troy Buchanan High School in Troy, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It's safe to say that this show had a lot of hype behind it.  With "Nature Boy" Ric Flair in the house, a bigger venue was necessary for the "Night Of Champions" event.  I even saw a billboard for the event on the highway as I was driving to the show!  The week-long training camp saw attendees from across the country and even Canada...they had several special guest trainers including Tom Pritchard, Naomichi Marufuji, Hirooki Goto, and Gedo.  I didn't see any of them on Saturday, but Bobby Eaton was in attendance at the merchandise table.  They had a few hundred people in the high school gymnasium...sweet.  With more matches on the lineup, the show had an earlier start time of 6 PM.

Had the opportunity to meet a few newcomers to the St. Louis wrestling scene...this region is literally drawing wrestlers from all over the world.  I spoke with Karim Brigante and Monica Passeri, who have been training with WLW and previously competed in their home country of Italy.  They'll be debuting for both Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling and High Risk Wrestling in the near future.  I also met Australia native Wam Bam Bellows(quite the wrestling name there!)...he's wrestled all over the world and made his SICW debut the previous weekend.  Look forward to seeing what they have to offer.  Saw several familiar faces in attendance though they didn't wrestle:  Dustin Bozworth, Michael Magnuson, Eathon Wright, Cancun Kid, and Lucy Mendez.  Also spoke with Gary Jackson during the second intermission.

Your ring announcer was Brian Thompson; your referees were Richard White & Brandon Schmitt.

The show started with Harley Race and Ric Flair coming out to the ring area as Flair spoke to the fans in attendance.  Unfortunately I didn't get to directly meet him...I actually got his autograph back in 1999 when WCW Slamboree was coming to town.  Harley is now in a motorized wheelchair but is probably still tougher than most of us.  Flair told some road stories about himself and Harley, particularly Harley proving his toughness to the locker rooms in Japan!  Very cool to see Flair in person, at any rate...he jokingly grabbed Stacey O'Brien in a headlock on the way out.

Battle Royal:  I knew four of the seven participants:  Mike Outlaw, Justin D'Air, Jack Gamble, and "Young & Dangerous" Evan Morris.  Roy Lewis(who had been a ref for Pro Wrestling Championship Series) was making his Midwest in-ring debut after having his first handful of matches in Texas and (I think) Memphis.  The remaining two competitors were in town for the training camp:  Josh Calisto from Minnesota and "Gentleman" Jake O'Brien from Oklahoma.  (I didn't clearly hear the ring announcement so they may have given him a different last name...market confusion with Stacey and all.)

Lewis got an initiation of sorts as he took a beating from the other six entrants...he got in a swinging fisherman buster on Gamble, but Gamble dumped him to the floor shortly thereafter.  O'Neil tossed Calisto, but the remaining four wrestlers ganged up on the larger Gentleman to get him out.  Morris tried to throw out Outlaw and D'Air, but both held on to the top rope and skinned the cat to double-headscissor Morris to the floor.  Morris blew a gasket and pulled Outlaw to the floor in response...heel turn, perhaps?  That left Gamble and D'Air...my money was on Gamble as the most "tenured" WLW competitor, but D'Air picked up the win in 10:03 after eliminating Gamble.

Brandon Espinosa & "Kickin'" Kyle Roberts vs. Kevin Lee Davidson & Hannibal:  K.L.D. had wrestling gear for the first time in this area(he usually has the bodyguard attire at Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance shows).  Hannibal is a Canadian competitor who has a passing resemblance to Damien Sandow.  Espy really loaded up on the eye shadow for the night...err.  This was a good solid tag match with a good contrast in styles(speed vs. size).  Roberts pinned Hannibal after he and Espinosa hit stereo frog splashes from opposite turnbuckles on Hannibal and K.L.D.(respectively) in 10:08.  (This show had long matches; no match went under ten minutes.)

Trevor Murdoch & Brian Breaker vs. Moonshine Mantell & Josef Von Schmidt:  Mantell is from Texas, Schmidt is from Connecticut.  Haven't had a good evil German in wrestling since...what, Alex "Berlyn" Wright?  J.V.S. has an eyepatch because he's EVIL~!  Hadn't seen Breaker in a while; he worked a few matches for SICW before his brief NXT stint as Brandon Traven, but he was a WLW regular for a while and held their Heavyweight Title.  Mantell cheated by taking a swig from his jug and spitting the contents(look at his name and take a wild guess) in Murdoch's eyes.  Anywho, another standard solid tag bout here...neat finish as Breaker picked up Mantell in powerbomb position and Murdoch added a clothesline off the top rope.  That allowed Murdoch to get the three-count in 12:35.

Intermission~!  Concession count:  One 20-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew.  I swear I saw water fountains in the general area of the gym; should have gotten my beverage sustenance from there.  (Yes, I keep track of this stuff while I figure out my personal diet.  Been binging way too much on junk food.)

Jon Webb vs. "The" Ace Hawkins:  Not sure why, but these two didn't seem to click for whatever reason.  Almost positive this was their first one-on-one meeting.  Don't know if it was necessarily bad, just not as good as I was thinking it could be.  hopefully they'll lock horns again in the near future and give it another go.  Webb won with his second Sliced Bread #2 of the match in 12:30...maybe it could have worked better with less time?

Stacey O'Brien vs. "Miss Natural" Heather Patera, best-of-three-falls for the Women's Title:  Miss Natural holds the record with seven reigns as WLW Women's Champion(her first title win was in 2002!); Stacey is on her sixth reign.  These two have traded the belt on a few occasions and the feud is just about even; after Stacey won a close battle at the most recent Troy show, Miss Natural challenged her to this two-out-of-three-falls bout.  They blew through the first two falls quickly, which seemed like a waste of the stipulation...oh well.  Miss Natural got a rollup with feet on the ropes(Flair Pin~!) in 1:41, then tried to bring in a chair only to be stopped the ref.  That led to a backcracker by Stacey for the second fall in 3:52.  Things settled down into a standard match from there; as noted, they know each other REALLY well.  The finish came abruptly as Stacey climbed the turnbuckles and Natural pulled her feet out from under her; she hit her head on the top turnbuckle HARD and stayed down.  I couldn't tell if it was a storyline injury or if she was legitimately knocked loopy (one of my friends said it was legit)...either way, the referee backed Miss Natural away from her opponent and finally called for the bell at 12:00.  As a result of the stoppage, Miss Natural is now the eight-time Women's Champion...all righty then.

Elite Aggression("Superstar" Steve Fender & "Dangerous" Derek McQuinn) vs. The Black Hand Warriors(Dave DeLorean & Jayden Fenix) for the Tag Team Titles:  This stemmed from DeLorean and Fenix winning a four-team tournament for the vacant championship, only for Fender to cash in a "guaranteed title shot" contract on them.  Fender & McQuinn defeated the worn-down champions for an easy victory, but this time they were on even footing.  This was another matchup that didn't seem to gel as well as it could have; maybe it was tag team burnout after two other tag bouts on the show.  Maybe it could have told the same story with less time than it got(it was one of the longest matches on the show)...just one dork-who's-never-been-in-the-ring's opinion.

There were plenty of close near-falls for each side...DeLorean took out McQuinn with a somersault dive off the apron, leaving Fenix in the ring with Fender.  Fender got out a chain while the referee was checking on the two on the floor, but swung and missed.  The reversal sequence ended with Fenix getting an O'Connor Roll for the surprise pin in 21:12...new Tag Champs?  Not quite...Fender planted the chain on Fenix's person somewhere in that exchange.  Fender & McQuinn protested that Fender had been hit with an international object...once the chain was found, the decision was reversed and the champs retained.  This feud...MUST CONTINUE~!

Cue intermission numero dos...

"The Legacy" Leland Race vs. "The Exclamation Point" Steve Anthony for the Heavyweight Title:  Anthony was a mainstay in WLW several years ago; he's the current NWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion after beating Jushin "Thunder" Liger at the Cauliflower Alley Club get-together in Las Vegas.  I had only seen Anthony one other time at a live show; he faced Steve Fender on one of the early High Voltage Wrestling shows.  The main event was my personal favorite match of the show as they worked well together.  This was the only match of the night with an announced time limit and the only one where the ring announcer kept tabs on the elapsed time; that seemed to telegraph the finish.

I go by the philosophy that something matters in wrestling ONLY if the promotion says it matters.  As such, when I personally time matches on my cellphone's stopwatch, it's for my own reference more than anything.  If an official match time is given by the ring announcer or the official result listing online, then I defer to that.  Myself and Ben Simon were the only people who really noticed that the thirty-minute time limit took slightly over twenty to expire...the Tag Title match was actually longer by a few minutes in real time.  In other words, this is nothing but nitpicking on my own part and it doesn't really matter in the big picture.  There have been times when The Mad Conservative Crimefighter would raise holy hell on the spot in such a situation, but I don't think that's necessary.

The closing sequence saw Anthony hit his trademark 450 Splash only for Race to kick out at ONE(one of those new FIGHTING SPIRIT~! things that's becoming cool).  Race hit his full nelson faceplant finisher(Darren Young's old Heatwave move) but only got a two-count.  A reversal sequence in the final seconds ended with Race hitting his finisher for a second time...he crawled over to cover, but the time limit expired before he could get the pinfall.  This was where it looked sketchy as the ring announcer counted down "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...*Race makes cover* 2-1-ding ding" to ensure the finish came off as planned.  Timing such an ending for a draw finish is a difficult thing to do, to be fair...it's a lost art since very few wrestling promotions even have time limits any more, let alone draw finishes.  At any rate:  Official time 30:00, real time 20:30.

Match over, time for the aftermath:  Recent Race enemies Fender & McQuinn attacked the champion, ganging up on him until Anthony could BELT him down.  Trevor Murdoch hit the ring with a chair and the rulebreakers bailed...cue red flag as none of the trio were struck by Murdoch.  Race slowly got back to his feet...WHAM, Murdoch chaired him in the head.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have a heel turn.

The bad guys dished out a four-on-one beatdown as Harley Race made his way to ringside; Murdoch said that they were the "WLW originals" and the new guys had been "trained wrong", so they're reclaiming their territory.  DeLorean and Fenix hit the ring but the numbers weren't in their favor and they were beaten down as well(no Magnuson?...).  Murdoch challenged anyone from the locker room to deal with them...but they got EVERYONE in the active locker room.  The numbers finally turned against the WLW originals and they took some abuse from the top fan favorites to send the fans home happy.  Whew!

Post-show:  Denny's, Grand Slamwich...ended up taking half of it home to re-heat the next day.  Bobby Eaton and Brian Thompson sat two tables away from us...Bobby's a really quiet guy but a nice dude.

All in all, it was a fun time...the purpose of such a show is to get more eyes on the product and it definitely accomplished that.  I like the storyline they set up and it'll be interesting to see where they go with it.  Perhaps Miss Natural will be on the side of the "originals" with Stacey on the other side?  Where does Magnuson stand as it relates to his teammates?  Will more "originals" resurface as part of the angle?  We shall see...

September looks like this for me:
-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