Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Stratford Inn in Fenton, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
A friend sent me scans of the alphabetical listing for this year's Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI 500...so yes, I did hammer out the chronological list by hand. It looks like I got quite a bit of blog traffic from that...bwahahaha. (My Blogspot view count tends to top out in the double digits and the PWI 500 posting currently has more than *20,000* views...wow.)
So, for newer blog readers: My name's Patrick Brandmeyer. I watch more professional wrestling than would be considered healthy. I have a particular affinity for the St. Louis independent scene and have followed it for the past fifteen years or so. I am also an aspiring standup comedian and do a lot of open-mics, which you'll also read about here. The blog archive dates back to 2004(on LiveJournal, anyway) if you feel like following the footprints in the sand of my neuroses. Cheap social media plug: I'm on Facebook and Twitter at @patrickab7.
The main hype for the weekend was Matt Sydal's return to St. Louis wrestling; sadly, travel issues led to Matt being unable to attend. Michael Elgin was announced as appearing at the Saturday show and Davey Richards & Angelina Love were scheduled for the Sunday event, but they were never advertised for anything more than autograph signing. As a result, the biggest matches of the weekend went essentially unadvertised...Dynamo officials were probably unsure if Elgin and Richards' Missouri licensing would be finalized in time for the shows. If nothing else, Matt's state licensing is free and clear if a Missouri promotion is able to book him in the near future. A note was posted outside the door on Saturday to let fans know about Matt's absence and it was acknowledged by the ring announcers on a few occasions.
Despite Matt's absence, Saturday's show had really good attendance and the fans were enthusiastic for the whole show. It's good to see that they've built a strong audience in Fenton since Glen Carbon has been rough going in recent years.
Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your assistant ring announcer was Luke Roberts, and your referees were Michael Crase, Jay King, & Patrick Hook.
"Lights Out" Adrian Surge vs. Kevin Lee Davidson: This was a battle of Dynamo newcomers; central Illinois competitor Surge made his debut at the July show in a loss to Brandon Aarons. Despite being a rulebreaker at that show, he was a fan favorite here and got several "Lights Out" chants. K.L.D. was making his DPW debut after competing primarily for the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in the past year and a half. He's been traveling more in recent months and made his Ring Of Honor debut at the Collinsville event in June. Davidson won a decent opener with the spinebuster in 7:17.
"Young & Dangerous" Evan Morris vs. The Snitch: The masked man is still billed as hailing from An Undisclosed Location and asks the ring announcer to forbid photography for his own personal safety...heh. I haven't seen much of the newcomer yet, though I've heard plenty of positive reviews from other people. Morris finished with the frog splash in 5:47.
Rocket Mapache vs. Tag Team Champion(?) Jayden Fenix: Travis Cook was barred from the building after his repeated interference in last month's matchups. This match set the tone in that regard: Would the manager's absence lead to his charges being off their game, or would they find other ways to achieve victory? They had a pretty good matchup here; Rocket rallied, but Fenix cut him off with a Stungun(OLDSCHOOL~!) and pinned him with a handful of tights in 5:10. Rocket got some post-match vengeance with a good old-fashioned head bite.
Justin D'Air vs. "The Yoga Monster" Mike Sydal: The match was scheduled to be Matt & Mike teaming up for the first time in the U.S.(they had a tag match in Dragon Gate Japan) against Mike Outlaw and D'Air. Considering how little time they had to prepare, I thought they had a really strong one-on-one matchup; wouldn't mind seeing them lock up again in the future. D'Air got a close near-fall after his version of the Van Terminator, then another after his killer Buff Blockbuster from the top rope. However, he went to the well once too often and Sydal picked up the win via Yogasault(moonsault with the yoga mat) in 10:32...nicely done, gents.
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz & The Bumrush Brothers("The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs & Outtkast) vs. Brandon Espinosa, "The Filipino Warrior" Elvis Aliaga, & "The Millenial" Danny Adams(w/ Lucy Mendez): While Travis may have been absent, Lucy was in the house...sorry, my mind wandered for a second there. Despite Aliaga's harsh words regarding Espinosa's absence at the last Glen Carbon show, they seemed to be on the same page here. The good guys had some fun in the early going...Shorty delivered devastating purple-nurples to all three opponents. When Lucy jumped up on the ring apron to protest the treatment of her guys, Shorty got a mischievous look in his eye...but he was cut off before he could administer the same treatment to her. Later in the match, the fan favorite trio knocked the rulebreakers down into...well, I'll say "compromising" positions. It was a hot day in the St. Louis area, but it felt like the Summer Of '69 in the Stratford Inn that evening. *rimshot* The heels managed to take control for an extended segment of the match, but Ricky finally got the hot tag...cue casa en fuego! Everyone hit big moves, including Aliaga delivering the T.C.B.(Falcon Arrow) on Shorty...but Cruz was the last one to strike, dropping Adams with a superkick for the victory in 15:50.
Intermission~! Had three Pepsis, taking advantage of the limited free refills...went with water after that. It's been really hot and humid in the Midwest...
The Black Hand Warriors(Michael Magnuson & Dave DeLorean) vs. High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb) for the Tag Team Titles: Travis' interference in last month's clash between these teams led to this rematch. These duos have battled for the past few years in both Dynamo and World League Wrestling, trading the WLW Tag Titles a few times...but H.L.E. had never beaten the 'Warriors in Dynamo until last month's DQ finish. As you'd expect, these guys know each other very well and had another great matchup...it's cool to see this feud gain some traction under the Dynamo banner. Even though Travis wasn't in the building, Jayden Fenix still interfered on behalf of his stablemates...Gamble & Webb were able to fend him off and even reversed the Warriors' signature double-stomp-spike Tombstone into their own for a close near-fall. After some more close calls, Gamble set up a Canadian Destroyer on Magnuson, but DeLorean blatantly BELTed him for the DQ in 18:11. BOO~!
Cue the three-on-two beatdown...that ended in grand fashion with Magnuson and DeLorean holding the H.L.E. members up in Tombstone position over the title belts, then Fenix adding the double-stomp-spike from the top rope to drive them down onto the belts! Despite being hurt from the attack, Gamble got the microphone and said they wanted one more shot at the belts...but this time it would be a no-disqualification match. Co-promoter Crystal Yount made it so...October 3rd will be a tough choice for wrestling shows in this area as Pro Wrestling Championship Series runs on the same night.
"Dirdey/Intelligent Monster" Jake Dirden vs. Brandon Aarons for the Heavyweight Title: This was hyped as Aarons' first shot at the Dynamo championship; he started his training at the Dynamo gym though his career took him in different directions for a while (Aarons is the current Pro Wrestling Epic Heavyweight Champion). It was your standard David-vs.-Goliath battle with Aarons giving him a really good fight. All three Black Hand Warriors tried to run interference, but Aarons was able to fend them off and avoid a DQ finish. Aarons got a near-fall after the close-range superkick, then hit a double-stomp off the top rope but Dirden barely got his foot on the bottom rope(reminiscient of the recent Seth Rollins vs. Adrian Neville match on Raw when Neville's leg hook accidentally landed Seth's foot on the rope). Aarons fended off one more wave of Black Hand Warrior interference, but the numbers finally caught up to him and Dirden took him down with the Asiatic Spike. Aarons never tapped out or submitted, but he blacked out in the hold and the referee called for the bell at the 12:14 mark when Aarons' arm dropped three times. It took Aarons some time to recover from the hold and he had to be assisted back to the dressing room area.
"Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. Mike Outlaw: The ring announcer had said that Elgin would be "in the ring" but didn't really specify that he would be wrestling. I only realized that there was another match after the title match because a) Chris amended himself to say "title match" instead of "main event" for Dirden-Aarons and b) I realized Outlaw hadn't wrestled yet. I had wondered if the title match would turn into some sort of impromptu tag bout with Outlaw and Elgin entered into the mix...I wish they had been more clear, as some of the fans left after the title match because they thought the show was over. At any rate, these guys had a strong main event; like Sydal and D'Air, they couldn't have had much time to prepare. Outlaw hit Elgin with just about everything in his arsenal but couldn't keep him down, even after the High Noon elbowdrop off the top rope. Elgin avoided the Mafia Kick and got the win with the spiral bomb in 15:46...it played out as a face-vs.-face matchup, but the Fenton audience has been firmly pro-Outlaw for a long time now. Elgin got on the microphone afterwards and professed his respect for Outlaw afterwards, raising his arm...all righty then. Congrats to Elgin and MsChif on the birth of their son on Friday...all things considered, Elgin could have easily taken a pass on this show for obvious reasons and people would have understood.
On the way home, I saw SOMETHING on fire in the distance...it turned to be a BIG RIG TRUCK ENGULFED IN FLAMES. Eep. I have no idea if anyone was caught inside, but I saw a couple of people looking at it from a safe distance. Random thing from the drive home...
Anywho, it was a busy weekend and Dynamo would be back in action less than twenty-four hours later...but that's another commentary for another time. Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel...
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
P.S. We are all marks.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
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