Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
It looks like my stint as a commentator for Wrestling Explosion has come to an end. Promoter Herb Simmons wants to personally push the upcoming fall events, so he has returned to the mic alongside Drew Abbenhaus. It was fun while it lasted and hopefully I'll be able to call more of the local wrestling action in some capacity.
Turnout seemed a bit lighter than normal but was still decent...there was a baseball game at GCS Stadium that night, though I don't think that was a HUGE factor. I left earlier than usual, which was fortunate since I was stopped by a train for a few minutes.
They didn't have any music for the night...had never been to an "a cappella" wrestling show before. The show started with the National Anthem, sung by local young lady Morgan...nice job, as usual. The roster came out to ringside and promoter Herb Simmons introduced someone who hadn't been to the building in almost a year: Larry Matysik! That got a great crowd reaction...sadly, I couldn't see him over the rest of the audience as everyone was standing. Wish I could have talked to him before he left for the night, but he said a few words to the fans in attendance...very cool that he's feeling well enough to stop by the show.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus and your referees were Terry Riley & Denny Thomas. Both officials got "New Ref" catcalls during the night...geez, those fans don't know WHAT they want... (Presumably they wanted Jay King...give the man a break, he's very busy with the refereeing, veterinary duties, ninjitsu, AND Von Erich impersonation gigs...)
Keith Smith Jr. & The Math Magician vs. Waco & "Dead Sexy" Daniel Gunner: The Math Magician made his SICW debut at the August show in a loss to The Iceman...last month was an anomaly for me as I hadn't missed an East Carondelet show in almost two years. Gunner had been a fan favorite in recent months and the makeshift duo with Waco didn't seem to function well as a unit. The masked man took the lion's share of abuse for his side, but Keith Jr. cleaned house after the hot tag. A miscommunication on the opposite side led to Keith attempting a sunset flip or rollup on Waco, but Waco fell into the ropes. Smith rebounded with IT'S THE BIG FOOT and pinned Waco in 9:08...all righty then. The Waco/Gunner tandem left separately...
Karim Brigante vs. "The Icon" Chris Hargas(w/ Brandon Espinosa): Travis Cook was conspicuous by his absence on this evening...a few fans chanted "We Want Travis" at times. I wondered about those particular gentlemen...and I was uneasy enough with the presence of a youngster in a Pentagon Jr. mask. (Sure, let your kid idolize the guy who sets people on fire...just because I'm a bit weird in the head doesn't mean you should let your kids be influenced by those kind of characters. I AM NOT A ROLE MODEL, or something.) Ben Simon noted that our mutual first impression of Brigante was a match with "Skinny Timmy"...yup. I thought this match was REALLY good and they worked well together...this was a rare case where Hargas was at a slight size disadvantage. Espy stuck his nose into the proceedings a few times, as you might expect...Brigante got a good rally going, but the distraction proved costly. Karim knocked Espinosa off the ring apron, but Hargas was able to recover and deliver the F-5 to win in 5:28. Nice outing for Brigante; I'll be watching his career with great interest.
"The Modern-Day Moolah" Malia Hosaka vs. "The Queen Of Chaos" Lucy Mendez: Hosaka had been at a few previous SICW shows, but this was her first Midwest match in a long time; she was in the rare position of being the fan favorite against established heel Lucy. For those like myself who first saw Hosaka in WCW in the late-'90s, it was a revelation to discover that she made her pro debut in *1987*! She competed in WCW's short-lived women's division during the Monday Night Wars before the New World Order overtook everything else...she also made a handful of appearances on WWF TV but never became a regular character on their show. She held the World League Wrestling Women's Title and was also one-half of the SHINE Tag Team Champions with Brandi Wine.
They took some time to build up the match, something which made more sense in retrospect. The fans were slowly drawn into the bout as Malia was essentially an unknown to casual observers, but she made a good impression by the end of the bout(I heard a few "Moolah" chants). Lucy focused her attack on the arm and Malia favored the injured limb for the rest of the contest...YAY SELLING~! They went for a lot of pinning combinations as the time ticked down...working toward a time limit is a lost art in wrestling nowadays as very few promotions still make use of the clock. In the end, they went to a 15:00 time-limit draw(!)...fans wanted five more minutes but Lucy declined. Hopefully we'll get round two in the near future...YAY WRESTLING~!
Cue intermission~! Concession count was two sodas(Orange Crush and Pepsi) and a Hershey bar with almonds. Patience is a virtue at some independent shows as they'll occasionally mark down the food/drink prices near the end of the show...word to the wise.
Ron Powers vs. Ax (Allwardt) & (Bubba) Troll: Powers steamrolled Waco at the August show and got an impromptu title shot at Flash Flanagan; that ended in a non-finish due to outside interference. Ax and Troll tried to use the numbers game to their advantage, but another makeshift team had communication problems on this night. Troll accidentally avalanched Ax in the corner and Powers rolled up Troll for a quick pin in 2:30...for an exclamation point, Ax stumbled out of the corner and flopped forward, landing head-first on Troll's groin. Owie.
"The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson vs. "The Iceman" Howard Moritz: Iceman had his International Dance Championship trophy with him, but it was presumably not at stake here. This was more competitive than I was expecting, to be honest...it definitely raised Iceman's stock in this area. Chaz rallied only to be cut off by Iceman, but when Iceman tried to use his trophy as a weapon, Chaz got the pinfall with an O'Connor Roll in 10:21. Iceman was quick to get some payback for his defeat, leveling Wesson with the trophy and beating him down with it before taking his leave. Wesson called Herb out to the ringside area and asked him rather directly to sign a rematch between himself and Iceman...ahem.
"Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre), strap match, Wyldefyre handcuffed to the ringpost: Wylde spent most of his recent matches in retreat mode, so Vincent wanted insurance that Wylde wouldn't be able to run away. Also, Wylde won their August encounter via countout thanks to a cheapshot by Wyldefyre with a brick-loaded purse, so the cuffing was an attempt to neutralize her involvement. These two have put on some really good matches in their recent series, something that has gone outside of SICW on a few occasions. In particular, the characters are great foils for each other as the down-to-earth Vincent battles the more extravagant Wylde couple.
Even with Wyldefyre cuffed to the post, she was still able to interject herself by tripping Vincent when he was near her corner of the ring. There were several close calls exchanged as each guy would tag three turnbuckles but be cut off before reaching the fourth. That included the requisite spot where the heel neglects the position of the strap and gets crotched with it by the face...eep. Vincent nearly won only to be pulled backwards into the Wylde Ride(Flatliner), then Wylde hogtied him with the strap and dragged him around the ring. Unbeknownst to him, Vincent was tagging the turnbuckles behind him...so it turned into a struggle once they each had three tagged corners. It's been a popular finish to this style of match(whether it be a strap, chain, or bullrope involved), but it usually goes over great. In a nice twist with some continuity added, Wyldefyre tried to stop Vincent with her loaded purse but hit her own man by mistake...that gave Vincent the opening to tag the final corner and win in 10:56!
Vincent would have been forced to leave SICW if he had lost, but instead the Wylde couple became her servants for a whole weekend. Vincent informed them to be at his family ranch bright and early...bwahahaha. Curtis stormed away from ringside and left his lady cuffed to the ringpost...the ringside policeman teased leaving her there before he finally unlocked the handcuffs. As Wyldefyre ran to the backstage area, Curtis grabbed her by the hair and angrily blamed her for the loss...uh-oh, there's some trouble in paradise.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Brandon Espinosa: These two have battled several times, mostly in the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance over the Heavyweight Title. Jackson, like many fan favorites in SICW, has issues with Travis Cook's crew and that caused their paths to cross again. Espinosa targered the arm after Gary hit the ringpost shoulder-first, working toward his cross-armbreaker finisher. Gary made the comeback, but Chris Hargas brought out Attila Khan to attack Gary for the DQ finish in 7:49. The Travis Cook Organization beat down Jackson three-on-one, ending with Espinosa hooking the cross-armbreaker. Gary left the ring area with his arm in obvious pain...
Cue intermission numero dos...nice that it's not as hot outside so the building wasn't as stuffy as it had been in previous months...
Flash Flanagan vs. Heath Hatton for the Classic Title: After a few indecisive finishes, Flanagan won the title from Hatton through nefarious means about a year ago. Hatton took time off from wrestling to recover from nagging injuries while Flash defended the championship, losing it to Gary Jackson before winning it right back. Heath returned a few months ago and worked his way up the rankings to earn his return match for the title against a man he had never decisively beaten...so yup, just a bit of backstory here. Big Daddy came out to watch the match and mingle with the fans...no real idea about his true purpose at ringside. He's been associated with Red River Jack, Ron Powers(...not that they're the same person or anything... *shifty eyes*), Gary Jackson, and Daniel Eads in the past, so he had no official interest in this one.
At any rate...wrestling match, yay~! A missed kneedrop by Flanagan set up some leg work by Hatton and a figure-four leglock, but Flash barely made it to the ropes. When Heath went for the hold again, he was kicked away and the momentum caused him to knock the referee down. *cue ominous music* Hatton took Flanagan down into the Crippler Crossface(that's how he won the title from Ken Kasa last year~!) but there was no one to see the tapout. Hatton agonized over what to do next, but in the meantime Flash got his kendo stick and beat down the challenger with the weapon. Big Daddy called Ron Powers out to the ring and he dropped Flash with an RKO, then put Hatton on top as the referee recovered. The official counted one...two...but then he smelled a rat as he saw the kendo stick in the ring and Powers still standing there. As a result, he called for the bell and disqualified Hatton, awarding the match to Flanagan in 11:26. D-OH! Hatton had words with Powers after the match, saying he didn't need any help and Powers had cost him the match. Heath stormed away from the ring area, leaving a brief Flanagan/Powers confrontation before Flash got away with his belt.
Flanagan vs. Powers for the title has already been announced for the October show, so I guess that was Powers' interest in the match...I can imagine that bout won't sit well with Hatton. Not sure if Attila Khan will be facing Gary Jackson or Ricky Cruz(who was conspicuous by his absence on this night). I'm sure we'll hear more in the coming weeks about how that show will shape up...
My weekend wasn't quite over as there was a show on Sunday night...but that's another commentary for another time. Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel...
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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