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.
I wasn't aware that Juggalo Championship Wrestling had a show at Pop's in Sauget on Friday night. Dynamo Pro posted pictures on their Facebook page since Jake Dirden, Mike Outlaw, and Justin D'Air worked the show (along with other familiar faces like The Viking War Party). Would have been neat to put my show count for the year at an even seventy, but I'm obsessive-compulsive like that. I'll just go with the magic number of sixty-nine so we can all giggle like twelve-year-old pre-teens. (Uh huh huh huh, you said "sixty-nine"...)
For preparation, I pulled up the YouTube videos of last month's Swansea show and I also watched Wrestling Explosion a day early. Quick 'n' dirty details: Ken Kasa returned as a fan favorite and, after teasing a reunion with Travis Cook, sided against the Organization in general and Chris Hargas in particular. Kahagas stole the fall on Classic Champion Flash Flanagan in last month's triple threat tag team main event. Curtis Wylde got another cheap win over Sean Vincent and Gary Jackson fell victim to an attack by the Travis Cook Organization(stemming from Cook costing him his shot at Flanagan in Swansea). Due to all the recent shenanigans, SICW dusted off the steel cage for the first time in years for the triple main event.
It was a packed house at the Community Center...with the unseasonably warm conditions, it was a good thing that I wore a T-shirt. I was fortunate to find a seat in the crowded venue...woo. Starting with the November show in East Carondelet, SICW has begun using a new ring that was patterned as a tribute to the Wrestling At The Chase style of ring...very cool.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Denny Thomas, Terry Riley, and Jay King.
Morgan sang the National Anthem, doing a fine job as usual. After that, they had a ten-bell salute for Hack Myers(SHAH~!)...he was one of the less-known competitors in the original ECW, but he was very popular for a midcarder.
"Dead Sexy" Daniel Gunner vs. "The Enforcer" Jimmy D: These two butted heads at the Swansea show, then were on opposite sides of a tag match at last month's East Carondelet show(Jimmy D and Bubba Troll defeated Gunner and Bobby D). Of note, SICW has transitioned to separate music for each entrance...previously, they had just played one song for each match's entrances (since the entrances would be clipped from the TV show and they do the introductions in-ring). I don't know if I would have chosen this for a fast-paced opener to fire up the crowd, but that's just me. The good guy did win to kick things off; Gunner hit a kneelift/neckbreaker sequence(a la Mike Mizanin's old finisher) to win in 6:26.
Bobby D vs. "O.T.T." Britton Tucker: Former World League Wrestling competitor Tucker made his SICW debut at last month's show in a loss to The Math Magician. Bobby D gained momentum with his Firehouse Battle Royal win in Swansea and has been positioned as an upper-midcard fan favorite for most of his tenure. I jokingly boo when Bobby D is introduced as hailing from Belleville since, hey, I live there so I have an informed opinion. (Just kidding.) This was my first time seeing Tucker at a live show(since I saw him in YouTube clips before this); he did well in his arrogant rulebreaking character. Bobby D rallied to hit the Pedigree, but the time limit expired at 10:00...BOO~!
Barackus vs. Ax Allwardt: This was a battle of size and power against experience and guile...tough one to call. Barackus has dropped some weight in recent times; he was announced at 333 pounds(!). Ax had trouble dealing with the size disadvantage...attempting a bodyslam probably wasn't the best option. Ax was able to take advantage of a few mistakes to get some offense...Barackus came back with the CLAWWWWW, but Ax yanked him into the turnbuckles by the tights. That was enough of an opening for Ax to get the rollup pin in 6:13.
Intermission~!...sorta. Promoter Herb Simmons brought out "The Old School Warrior" Chaz Wesson...he didn't have a match, but was out to talk to the fans. Also: Santa Claus! I wouldn't think of Chaz in terms of holiday spirit, but there you have it. I indulged a bit on the refreshments since I will TRY to improve my diet in the near future... ("SUUUUURE..." "Shaddup.") Anywho, for the benefit of Ben Simon, my official concession count had three sodas(Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Orange Crush) and a bag of barbecue chips. Gotta cut back on the sugar and caffeine...
Red River Jack(w/ Big Daddy) vs. Bubba Troll: R.R.J.'s previous identity wasn't the best-kept secret in the world and his CURRENT I.D. is pretty blatant as well. I hate to outright say who it is, but even the Observer result listing had the masked man's true name on it. (Wasn't me, for the record... #smarksruineverything) Go back and read previous recaps to note the other guy on the SICW payroll with a conspicuous arm cast. However you slice it, Red River Jack had a tough time against his larger opponent...Big Daddy made a nuisance of himself at ringside, so Troll reached over the ropes and grabbed him by the suit jacket for a moment. Troll was on the verge of a major victory when Big Daddy grabbed him as he was attempting to climb the turnbuckles...Troll punched him off the apron(seemingly not fazing him too much), but the interference was enough to cause a DQ in 7:02. Random...R.R.J. wasn't too happy with his manager after that.
"Dirdey" Jake Dirden & "Ironman" Ken Kasa vs. Brandon Espinosa & "The Icon" Chris Hargas(w/ Travis Cook): The show picked up at this point, from my perspective...Dirden and Kasa had their wars when Kasa was champion, but now they have common enemies. Glad to see that Kasa's working well as a fan favorite after several years as a rulebreaker, but then the first part of his career was in the face role. The finish saw Hargas and Espinosa set up for their F-5/frog splash combination(which won them the tag match in Swansea), but Kasa escaped Hargas' grasp and shoved him into Espy to knock Espy off the turnbuckles. Kasa rolled up Hargas for the win in 9:45...leaving trouble in paradise for Travis Cook's troops. Travis had to play peacemaker(certainly an unusual position for him), but he talked them into Hugging It Out(tm).
Intermission numero dos meant it was time to set up the steel cage...there was only so much room in the building with the low ceiling, but it held up well despite the presence of several heavy hitters in the triple main event.
"Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre), cage match: Due to Wyldefyre's constant interference in their matches, Vincent asked for the cage match to keep her out of the fight. These two had some strong matches in 2015, including a strap match and last month's no-DQ bout in which Wyldefyre again helped her man win. Oddly, this was my favorite match of the three cage bouts on this night despite the lack of blood. Wyldefyre attempted to interfere and held her (loaded?) purse up to the cage wall...but Vincent reversed Wylde into the purse. With Wylde stunned, Vincent caught him in the Mapleleaf Leglock(sort of a sideways figure-four) for the tapout in 9:08...all righty then.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Attila Khan(w/ Travis Cook), cage match: The cage was to keep Travis Cook out of the match, though he got in a cheapshot or two before being forced out the door. Gary's problems with Cook and company only surfaced recently, so I ass/u/me this would have been Ricky Cruz against Khan prior to the changing of plans. Khan was busted open right away as Gary turned his own fork against him; on top of that, Gary wasn't above bringing a loaded glove into play. Khan repeatedly shoved the referee away when he tried to restore some level of order...then finally throttled the official and beat him down in the corner. However, this cost him the match as Khan picked up Jackson for a slam, but he fell backwards over the fallen referee and Gary cradled Khan for a flash pin in 5:00! The fight wasn't quite over, but Gary fought off the Mongolian to stand tall. Gary reminded us about THE RULES~!...but Curtis Wylde attacked him as he was leaving the cage, slamming the door on him repeatedly. Looks like that's our new feud for 2016...
Flash Flanagan vs. Ron Powers vs. "The Tokyo Monster" Kahagas(w/ Travis Cook) for the Classic Title: Powers scored a visual pinfall over Flanagan in October, but it was counted by a second referee and the original official called for a disqualification finish. Last month, Powers cleaned house with RKOs only for Kahagas to steal the fall on Flanagan. With both men holding legitimate claims to title shots, all three were put into the cage to settle things. Other than Gary Jackson's two-month reign early in the year, Flash had held the championship since last November. Flanagan was left bloody and we worried about the cage with three heavyweights battling it out, but it withstood the storm on this night. Powers cleaned house with a boot to the face of Flanagan and a released German suplex on Kahagas...but Kahagas' momentum caused him to land on top of Flanagan and the referee counted three in 7:14! Just like that...we had a NEWWWW SICW Classic Wrestling Champion!
Confusion reigned after the bell and Drew had to explain the finish to everybody as not everyone clearly saw that Kahagas had covered Flash...the only ones who were happy were the new champion and his manager(ecstatic to get "his title" back). Flanagan and Kahagas had a showdown and Flash(lesser of two evils in the eyes of the fans) challenged Kahagas to defend against him in January. Mandatory rematch clause and all that...we've got our main event for the first show of 2016.
Post-show, I made my way to Denny's with Brian Kelley(cheap plug for Missouri Wrestling Revival~!), Drew, and Gary Weiss...I went with the blueberry pancake breakfast for a change of pace. Mmm, pancakes.
Whew...that was a long year, folks. I saw several promotions for the first time and traveled longer distances for shows than I ever had before(though props go to Michael Langan for doing the driving on that CHIKARA excursion). I saw quite a few things that I hadn't seen before, even after close to twenty-five years of consistent viewing. The industry will continue to evolve and change with the times, but a lot of things will continue to work for select audiences...and that's a big part of why I keep watching. There's something out there for just about every type of fan...if you do a little bit of searching, you'll find the kind of wrestling that you want to watch. There's no need to limit yourself to "what's on TV" any more.
That's my special comment for this, the sixty-ninth wrestling show I've attended in the year 2015. (Heh heh m heh heh, you said "sixty-nine"...) Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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