Dynamo Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Douglas Club in Wood River, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It's been a busy month in this area's wrestling scene.  I didn't get a chance to watch the video of the MMWA show until last night.  Doing a comedy show last weekend meant that I missed THREE events on the same night.  There were several choices for this past Saturday evening...High Risk Wrestling now runs in Warsaw, Missouri, which is a bit out of my traditional driving range.  Other options were World League Wrestling in Troy, Missouri and World Powerhouse Wrestling in Collinsville, Illinois, so the local talent roster was spread thin with Ricky Cruz, Mike Outlaw, and Brandon Aarons(among others) not in attendance for this show.  I didn't know if Jake Dirden or Brandon Espinosa would be at Dynamo until I got to the show; only a handful of talent names were announced ahead of time and no matches were promoted, but the show had a surprisingly strong turnout in spite of those factors.

Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your assistant ring announcer was Luke Roberts, and your referees were Eric Allen and Jay King.

Garrett Shanks vs. "The Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell:  Shanks is a guy who has primarily competed on these Wood River shows and is very new.  I've seen him three times and he has been making progress in that time...he was extremely green in his match with Sean Orleans, but looked quite a bit better in this singles bout.  He has a good look and size and seems to have some fan support already, so those are some positives.  The highlight of the match saw Parnell set up Shanks in a chair at ringside, then springboard off the bottom rope into a flying forearm smash...ouch.  Parnell picked up the win with the pumphandle Michinoku Driver in 6:25.

"Cowboy" Ric Maverick vs. Jayson Khaos(w/ C.J. McManus):  Khaos is normally the bigger man in his matches, but he was up against an opponent of comparable size here.  I need to do more digging on Maverick's background as I've been told that he was involved in wrestling prior to his recent Dynamo debut.  I thought they had a solid competitive matchup; C.J.'s distraction made the difference for his side as Khaos was able to blindside Maverick, then take him down in a guillotine hold for the tapout in 5:42.

Heavyweight Champion "Dirdey" Jake Dirden came out and issued an open challenge, fully expecting to get a "greenhorn" to dominate.  Instead he got D-1 Champion Outtkast...they're no strangers to each other as they clashed in a House Of Fun Hardcore Match during Dirden's first reign.  The war of words led to co-promoter Crystal Yount making the main event for the evening as a title vs. title bout, as the secondary title holder is technically the number-one contender to the big belt...woo.

"Young & Dangerous" Evan Morris vs. The Snitch(w/ Sophie Darling):  This was a rematch from the January Wood River show; Morris has come a long way since his in-ring debut in that very venue.  Sophie was walking with a cane as she suffered a knee injury during training; she didn't stay at ringside after Snitch's entrance.  Snitch gave him a good fight, but hasn't won a whole lot in his short career; Morris hit the TKO onto the knee out of nowhere for the win in 7:17.

"The Don Mega" Shorty Biggs & C.J. Shine vs. The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby):  Hmm..."Bigg Shine"?  Wouldn't be a bad thing while Outtkast has a singles title to defend.  Eric Allen was the referee for this match, something that became a factor as Santel & McDarby had pushed him around at the January Wood River show.  The fans who regularly attend shows in that venue are aware of the past history from Metro East Championship Wrestling...that was one of the final feuds in the building before the promotion shut down.

The more experienced team isolated Shine and wore him down, but Shorty got a hot tag and cleaned house.  Shorty was taken out by The Professionals and they hit their back suplex/flying elbowdrop double-team on Shine(the elbowdrop was from the middle rope due to the low ceiling); however, Allen rightly wouldn't count the fall as Shine wasn't the legal man.  That led to another confrontation and it escalated when The Professionals threw down Allen's glasses and broke them...but that allowed Shorty and Shine to make a comeback.  Shorty dropped McDarby with the Paydirt and Allen counted the pinfall in 10:11...woo.  After the match, Santel & McDarby attacked Allen until Shorty and Shine re-entered the ring for the save...they had to hold back Allen from retaliating and reminded him that he's an official for a reason (nagging injuries forced him out of active competition).  Allen said that he had to stand up for himself and challenged The Professionals to a match; I wasn't sure if it was a one-on-one match with McDarby or a tag bout against both of them with a partner to be named later.

Making things more interesting, McDarby brought out a covered item and said that it was something that once belonged to Allen...if Allen won, he could have it back, but if Allen lost, he had to give up wrestling for good.  Setting the wayback machine for late 2012/early 2013:  McDarby had lost to then-MECW Heavyweight Champion Allen with the stipulation that he would get no more title shots.  That led to Allen edging out a win over Michael Elgin in February '13, after which Elgin destroyed Allen with three powerbombs and forced him into an injury layoff and title forfeiture.  McDarby would defeat Shorty Biggs(continuity~!) to capture the vacant title, after which it was revealed that McDarby and Santel had paid off Elgin to injure Allen so McDarby could get another opportunity at the gold.  I can only assume that McDarby's mystery item is the MECW Heavyweight Title belt...it was a nice nod to the previous history of wrestling in that building.

Intermission~!  My Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm) is pretty high as I didn't eat dinner before going to the show.  As such, I indulged a bit:  Hot dog, two root beers, bag of cheddar/sour cream Ruffles, and a Hershey bar with almonds.  Yes, I am fat, thanks for asking.

Keon Option vs. Brandon Espinosa:  This was a rematch from the first Dynamo show in Wood River; the bout main-evented the show and Option scored a big upset win at that time.  This time around, Espy wasn't taking his less-experienced opponent quite as lightly and he remained focused with his standard game plan.  Espy worked on the arm to build up to his finisher, similar to the previous match between these two in Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling...I guess that would have made this the rubber match as Espinosa won that encounter.  They had a good closing stretch, ending with Espy executing a cross-armbreaker takedown for the tapout in 11:18.

Kevin Lee Davidson vs. "American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph:  Me:  "You have my attention."  HOSS BATTLE~!  They had a wild brawl that went all over the building...I got a bit messy as a nearby trash can came into play, severely soiling the concession area.  A steel chair got involved on the floor as well...referee Jay King allowed a bit of leeway in that regard.  I feared for the state of the ring once they got back between the ropes.  I've been vocal about my fandom of K.L.D. and it's really good to see Rudolph(and Parnell) compete in the area on a more regular basis.  K.L.D. won with a massive spinebuster in 10:27...nicely done.

"Dirdey" Jake Dirden vs. Outtkast, Heavyweight Title vs. D-1 Title:  When the time limit was announced as fifteen minutes, I had a sneaking suspicion of how this one was ending.  For obvious reasons, it was a lower-key bout than their previous hardcore battle...the two seem to work really well together and it made for a solid (if more conservatively-paced) main event.  Outtkast showed impressive strength and leverage when he delivered two straight Northern Lights suplexes, but Dirden fought out of the third one.  Dirden's best near-fall of the match happened after he countered a top-rope headscissors attempt into a massive top-rope chokeslam, but he couldn't make an immediate cover and only got a two-count.  Outtkast came back to hit the Case Study, but the time limit expired at 15:00 before he could make the pin attempt.

Outtkast wanted Five More Minutes(tm), as did the fans, but Dirden declined...I guess that puts Outtkast in the running for a future Heavyweight Title shot as well.  The field of contention is getting crowded with Ricky Cruz, Mike Outlaw, and Brandon Espinosa already in line...

I will touch on something that occurred late in the show and shortly after it wrapped up, though I won't name names in order to avoid giving publicity to those whose actions don't merit it.  If you want to build your name on the independent wrestling scene, then put on shows, promote them, and put on an entertaining event.  The fans will have a good time, keep coming back, and (most importantly) tell other people to check out your promotion's shows.  If you try to disrupt other people's shows (and this was not the first time in recent memory that these people have done it), then all you're doing is giving yourselves a bad reputation among fans and wrestlers alike.  It hurts your promotion and it drags down the other groups by association.

March looks like this:

-Saturday 3/5:  Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO
-Saturday 3/12:  Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 3/19:  World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Saturday 3/26:  Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Wood River, IL; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL

That's my special comment for this, the eighth wrestling show I've attended in the year 2016.  Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991

P.S. We are all marks.