Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's St. Louis Anarchy show at the Spaulding Hall Club in Alton, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
This was SLA's last double-shot of the year, though they have a joint effort forthcoming with Pro Wrestling Championship Series in December. This show seemed to have the better turnout of the two, from what I could tell; unsure of why that was the case, though Davey Richards was only on the Friday show for this weekend.
Absences: Angelus Layne(personal reasons), Sugar Dunkerton(ditto), Andy Dalton(injury), and Donovan Danhausen(unknown). Layne posted on social media that she's taking a break from wrestling, but it sounded like she was still planning to be at the shows this weekend. Layne was scheduled to team with Mike Outlaw against Dalton and Alex Castle, so that was turned into a one-on-one matchup. Dunkerton and Danhausen were supposed to be in the four-corner match to decide the #30 slot in the following night's Anarchy Rumble; they were replaced by Mallaki Matthews and Jay Howard.
Your ring announcer was Kyle McNeil(he has a name~!); your referees were Brandon Tolle, P.J. Drummond, Austin Blackburn, and one other guy I didn't know.
Steve O. Reno vs. Paco Gonzalez: No fratboys this weekend, for those keeping score. This was a match where it was tough to call a winner between the two fan favorites; Reno is relatively new to the Midwest wrestling scene, appearing a few times for PWCS as well as SLA. While belts from Anarchy Championship Wrestling haven't been acknowledged in SLA recently, he is the current U-30 titleholder. This one could have gone either way, but Paco cut off Reno's attempt to climb the turnbuckles with a superkick that landed him uncomfortably on the middle rope. Paco added another superkick, then finished with a hanging lungblower/Codebreaker for the win in 8:26.
Mike Outlaw vs. Alex Castle: Outlaw didn't have his usual music on this night, causing fans to ask what happened to DMX. (The sound guy got it right on Saturday.) The original tag match stemmed from Outlaw helping Angelus Layne when she was attacked by Andy Dalton after a match. Castle's been around SLA/PWCS for a little while, but he finally has something to do with his feud with former partner Matt Cage; conversely, this was only Outlaw's second weekend with St. Louis Anarchy. They had a solid matchup that ended with Castle powerbombing Outlaw off the turnbuckles as he was delivering punches in the corner. Castle just barely got his feet on the ropes for illegal leverage as he scored the pin in 9:25...D-OH!
"The Money" Matt Cage vs. Trik Davis: Cage was the solid fan favorite in this one as he declared he would "beat the bitch" out of Davis. He also started a "Whoop That Trik" chant which caught on quickly. As I've previously commented, it's absurd how young Davis looks despite having been in wrestling for over a decade. They had a really good matchup with a lot of false finishes; Cage won with the Money Clip(fireman's-carry into a roundhouse right) in 12:26.
Roscoe Eat Lisa("The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan & "Zesty" Zakk Sawyers) vs. "The Rebel" Jeremy Wyatt & Christian Rose(w/ Greg Jovi): Zakk is scheduled for an SLA Heavyweight Title shot at the PWCS joint show in December; I'm surprised he wasn't booked more strongly this weekend to build him up. He didn't take the fall here, but a win or two would have been nice. It's a shame that Wyatt & Rose were paired up this late in Wyatt's career(he's retiring at the end of the year); they've been a tremendous heel tandem. Wyatt had fun antagonizing a kid in the front row at the previous double-shot and renewed the "rivalry" here...bwahahaha. If I'm not mistaken, this was the first time McFinnegan and Zakk had teamed up in SLA(I had seen them as a duo at Outlaw Wrestling). (EDIT: My bad; they were in the Tag Team Title tournament earlier this year.) The momentum swung several times in the finishing segment, ending with a double-team sequence by the Boss duo...Rose made Mikey tap out to the No-Leaf Clover(Liontamer-style Boston crab) in 18:59. Wyatt jawed with the kid after the match and the kid actually tried to attack him(to little effect other than mild annoyance on Wyatt's part)...too funny.
Gerald James(w/ Dorian Victor) vs. Davey Richards for the Heavyweight Title, best-of-three-falls match: Interesting match placement here; myself and Ben Simon correctly guessed that the eight-man tag would go on last as a result. These two crossed paths in SLA before; Davey won the match after he legitimately knocked James out with one of his kicks. That was one of the reasons for the best-of-three-falls stipulation in title matches(so that a person couldn't win on a "fluke" KO)...they had wanted to do this rematch for a long time and schedules finally lined up. Incredibly, Gerald has been champion for over two years...SLA shows are more spaced out than other promotions that run monthly, but it's still an impressive feat. His title defenses included retentions against Mat Fitchett, Kyle O'Reilly, Takaaki Watanabe, Fitchett again(TLC Match), Angelus Layne, Davey Vega(sixty-minute draw), Jojo Bravo, Paco Gonzalez, and Vega again(decisive win).
This shaped up to be a hard-hitting war and it lived up to that billing...the finishes were a surprise on some level, though it made sense to call back to their previous encounter. Gerald is technically a rulebreaker, but he's also the hometown champion so the fan support was divided. Davey won the first fall by knockout after a huge roundhouse kick; the referee called for the stoppage at 8:17 and gave Gerald a bit of time to recover. Davey controlled things from there but Gerald got a small package for a flash pin in 12:09, evening the score. It turned into a battle of attrition as the two traded huge bombs in the end...it was just a matter of who would stay down. Shockingly, it was Gerald James who was the last man standing; he delivered a flurry of strikes ending in a sliding forearm smash...the referee stopped it at 16:34, awarding the win to the champion via KO! Referees and security had to help Davey out of the ring, along with his wife Angelina Love who was at the merchandise table for the show.
Intermission~! Concession count: Two sodas(root beer and Pepsi). Ben Simon was at the show so he can personally vouch for my food recap.
Ricky Starks vs. Jordan Lacey vs. "All About Me" Mallaki Matthews vs. "The Freestyle Phenom" Jay Howard: As noted, this match would decide entry #30 in the Anarchy Rumble. Howard teams with J.A. Fair and Roy Lewis as the "Troy Athletic Club" in Texas(particularly ACW); Fair and Lewis were in attendance for both shows but neither were used (not even in the Rumble). My colleague Drew Abbenhaus has Howard pegged as one to watch in the Midwest wrestling scene; we'll be watching his career with great interest, as they say. Lacey was in the fan favorite role for the first time in a while after being dumped by Boss at the previous shows. Starks was the ACW Heavyweight/Hardcore Champion for the weekend, but he lost the title/s at Sunday's ACW event in Texas. I hadn't seen Mallaki in a little while; he worked a few shows for Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling and had one match for SLA a few years back. This match turned out to be the shortest of the night; I feel like multi-way schmozz matches have jumped the shark as they're an "easy" way to get a bunch of people on the card: Everyone "gets their (stuff) in" and only one person has to take a fall. It was fun for what it was; Starks won with the Angel's Wings on Howard in 6:12.
D.J. Shiima Xion(Zema Ion) vs. Davey Vega: I have stubbornly clung to D.J. Z's previous indie name, even though he's been "Zema Ion"/"D.J. Z" since his TNA debut. He no longer has the giant mohawk, sadly. With it being the ten-year anniversary of Eddy Guerrero's passing, I was surprised there weren't more frog splash attempts for the weekend; I blame the low ceiling, though I think D.J. Z tried one here. I hadn't seen much of D.J. Z outside of his TNA appearances, so it was cool to see him in full-length outings on both nights. Vega got the hard-fought win after the brainbuster onto the knee in 15:18...nicely done.
Mat Fitchett vs. Jojo Bravo: This was another battle of fan favorites gunning for one more at the gold. As noted, both had unsuccessfully challenged Gerald James for the title in the past; both also hold victories over him in non-title situations(Fitchett in a tag match, Bravo at a PWCS event). Fitchett and Jojo had locked up previously in PWCS with Fitchett scoring the win, but that was a while ago. Jojo became increasingly frustrated with his inability to put Fitchett away, even confronting the referee at one point and getting into a shoving match with him. That momentary loss of focus made the difference; Fitchett won with a torture-rack into a reverse Go 2 Sleep of sorts in 18:28.
The Hooligans(Devin & Mason Cutter) & The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell) vs. The Cause(Tag Team Champions Evan Gelistico & Adam Caster, Danny Adams, & Everett Connors): Connors has bleached-blond hair now and has a bowtie in his formal ensemble. The match started fast as the fan favorites rushed The Cause in the aisleway, kicking off a brawl that lasted several minutes before the match officially started. I whiffed on timing the bout so I can only offer an approximate match length; I'm sure you're all concerned. *snicker* I thought I heard the opening bell during the early brawl, then I missed it when it actually happened upon everyone returning to the ring area. At any rate, things finally settled down to a standard tag bout, but things would break down once again as all eight men fought. The Hooligans and Vikings decided to fill the ring with chairs, then the brothers Cutter double-bodyslammed Gelistico on the chairs...that prompted referee Austin Blackburn to call for the DQ(?!?) at about the twelve-minute mark. I had a feeling The Cause would get a personal referee, though I figured Brandon Tolle would be the candidate...however, Blackburn is the active wrestler so he can fit the bill as well. The Hooligans dished out immediate retribution, wrapping a chair around Blackburn's head and whalloping him with two more chairs...ouch.
With only Brian Kelley and Ben Simon in the posse for the night, we opted against going out to eat after the show...but I made a Taco Bell stop on the way home. Mmm, chicken quesadilla and cheesy potato burrito...
At any rate, the St. Louis Anarchy weekend was only half over, but that's another commentary for another time...stay tuned. Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.
That's my special comment for this, the sixty-third show I've attended in the year 2015. Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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