MMWA Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance show at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

After missing last week's wrestling shows, I had a full weekend this time around...while I had a family outing on Saturday evening, I left early enough to make it to the beautiful and/or historic S.B.A.C. for the month's festivities.  There was a LOT happening in the St. Louis area on Saturday...beyond the obvious baseball playoff game and WWE house show, I drove past a bunch of Oktoberfest gatherings on Broadway.  Attendance was noticably lower than usual, but still a respectable turnout that most independent shows would be happy to have.

I hadn't been to a WWE live event in several years, though it would have been cool to see Sasha Banks and The New Day.  Sasha didn't wrestle(probably taking a well-earned rest after the Ironman Match on Wednesday) but was at ringside for Team B.A.D.'s match.  Tyler Breeze was a surprise addition to the house show tour; would have been cool to see him as well.

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Brian Stoltz & Jay King.

Prince Moses vs. Tag Team Champion Brandon Espinosa:  Randomly, Espy wrestled twice on this show as he also had a scheduled Tag Team Title defense.  Moses is the newest graduate of the MMWA training center and this was his in-ring debut; it was pushed as "student vs. trainer".  That reminded me of how the new guys would usually wrestle Johnny Courageous when he was the head trainer, though Courageous was a solid fan favorite while Espy is a rulebreaker in this promotion.  Espy targeted the arm to lead up to his new finisher; the finishing sequence saw Espinosa deliver a deadlift superplex, hold on for a double-underhook suplex, then drop straight into the cross-armbreaker for the tapout in 11:56.

Ben Simon interviewed Gary Jackson about his King Of St. Louis Cup Tournament win; needless to say, his goal is the Heavyweight Title.  That brought Commissioner Jim Harris and new champion Kevin Lee Davidson to the ring and the match was made for later in the evening.  K.L.D. committed the sin of interrupting THE RULES~!...ooh.

"Da Bomb" Brian James vs. LaMarcus Clinton:  According to Ben Simon, T.V. Champion Attila Khan's "agent" had contacted MMWA management about the scheduled championship match.  Khan would not participate due to "unfair" circumstances, so that led to this contenders' match as L.M.C. was also owed a shot at the belt.  James is a guy who I would like to see work with more of the younger competitors in the area; he's a solid worker with a lot of experience who could teach them a lot.  I thought their previous encounter was oddly short and was hoping for a longer matchup here, but they had another short one for whatever reason.  James won with his signature sitout gourdbuster in 4:25.

J-Mal Swagg vs. "The Black Panther" Johnathon Zulu(w/ Andrew Wilder) for the Jr. Heavyweight Title:  Wilder came out with his tag team partner but returned to the backstage area before the opening bell.  I haven't seen a whole lot of Zulu and he still seems a bit green.  The match was decent enough; Swagg took Zulu down into a Crippler Crossface out of nowhere for the tapout in 7:13.  Billy Diamond hit the ring(I wasn't at the best angle to see if he was involved in the finish) but Wilder immediately cut him off, leading to an impromptu matchup...

Andrew "The Wolf" Wilder vs. "Wildchild" Billy Diamond:  I wasn't sure how well these two would work together, but I think the match clicked nicely for what it was.  I had wondered if they were building a storyline where the old guard would return to reclaim their turf from the young punks...it doesn't look that way so far, though Diamond was wearing a "Connection" T-shirt.  Diamond worked on Wilder's arm, thus impairing his ability to hit his Call Of The Wild(inverted swinging neckbreaker) finisher.  Despite that, he still needed underhanded tactics to win; he brought in his kendo stick and the referee took it away, but that was merely a feint to allow him an undetected kick to the Universal Weak Point(tm).  Diamond finished with a Stone Cold Stunner in 7:11...then dished out some post-match abuse with the kendo stick until Commissioner Harris ordered him to the backstage area.

Intermission~!  Concessions:  Two sodas and a box of popcorn(the latter courtesy of Drew Abbenhaus)...I had a lot to eat at my family's bonfire earlier in the evening so I wasn't overly hungry.  Promoter Tony Casta spoke to the fans along with visiting Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling promoter Herb Simmons, pushing the following weekend's SICW show and the St. Louis Wrestling Hall Of Fame inductions(Ed Smith and Bill Apter).

The Eternals(Brandon Espinosa & Ace Hawkins) vs. Varik Morgan for the Tag Team Titles, countout-and-DQ-rules-waived:  This was scheduled to be a rematch for Morgan and Tommy Dallas, who had defeated the titleholders by disqualification in September.  Morgan came out like a man who had been wronged, carrying a chair for good measure...Espinosa insinuated that Dallas had some sort of "accident" that caused his absence.  Morgan was willing to fight on his own, so it turned into an impromptu handicap bout with the previous stipulation still in effect.  The champs were probably in greater danger of losing their belts on a fluke DQ, given the situation...they still had a few miscommunications that led to upset teases for Morgan.  However, as Ace himself as taught us in the past, two is greater than one...Hawkins got the pin after a fallaway powerbomb/Ace Crusher combo with Espy in 11:37.

Ben Simon acknowledged the presence of former MMWA Women's Champion Poison Ivy in the audience...she was a bit before my time.

Barackus vs. Da'Marius Jones:  Jones was coming off a rough few months; his title reign was cut short by A.J. Williams' shenanigans, then Kevin Lee Davidson got involved and stole the belt out from under their noses.  As a result, he had a more aggressive streak in this battle of fan favorites; that seemed to sway the audience support in favor of the big man Barackus.  Barackus kicked out after Jones' Paydirt finisher, leaving him desperate for a way to win...so a missed avalanche gave Da'Marius the opportunity to get the rollup pin with feet on the ropes(HEEL~!) in 7:07.  Jones offered a post-match handshake, then took the cheapshot with a kick to the groin...ladies and gentlemen, we have a heel turn.

Moondog Rover vs. "The Enforcer" Jimmy D:  Rover was looking to rebound from his loss of the T.V. Title to Khan in September.  Trademark weapons were plentiful around ringside with Moondog's bone and Jimmy D's baseball bat within easy reach.  The brawl ended with D blatantly coldcocking Moondog with a chain wrapped around his fist, drawing a DQ in 8:30...this feud MUST CONTINUE~!

Kevin Lee Davidson vs. "Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson for the Heavyweight Title:  The Survivor/Battle Royal Title seems to have been retired as K.L.D. only brought the big belt with him.  Also, he wore his traditional wrestling gear as opposed to his bodyguard attire.  Davidson showed surprising agility with a nice spinning heel kick...didn't see that coming.  Other than that, it was a really good David/Goliath story with the experience factor added on top of that...Gary finally got him down and dropped the big elbow before going for the Texas Cloverleaf.  However, K.L.D. kicked him away and took a hike with his belt...with the champion long time, the referee called for the bell and the "technical countout" in 7:09.  Jackson won the match but not the title...Gary was upset about the outcome, but Davidson had left the building so nothing could be done on this night.

No post-show activities for yours truly...Drew left a bit earlier than I did and Brian Kelley was out at Metro Pro Wrestling in Kansas City, so I headed home to get some rest.  My weekend wasn't quite over, but that's another story for another commentary...Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.

Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991

P.S. We are all marks.