Dynamo Special Comment

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

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It was another weekend with two choices for independent wrestling shows, as Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling had their monthly event in East Carondelet.  I am the type that wants to see a bit of everything, so it's a tough decision when there's something worthwhile at most of the area shows.  I can catch up on SICW goings-on via Wrestling Explosion, at any rate...it looked like a lot of new faces made their debuts at their show.  As it stands right now, I am planning to attend the next East Carondelet event with Terry Funk in the house.

As has been tradition with the Wood River shows, several of the bigger guns were elsewhere for the night.  Heavyweight Champion Jake Dirden was not in the house and Ricky Cruz was at New Breed Wrestling in Eldon.  Also, Tag Champs High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb) were not in attendance.  The nice thing about the addition of the D-1 Championship is that it can be used to main-event shows when the other titleholders are absent.  Dynamo has built a really good audience in Wood River over the past several months and I've always enjoyed shows in this particular venue.

Your ring announcers were Chris Roedel and Luke Roberts; your referee was Patrick Hook.

Mike Outlaw vs. C.J. Shine:  This was a battle of fan favorites, but C.J. had a few vocal supporters in the audience and Outlaw subtlely went into a more aggressive style as a result.  In fact, Outlaw exchanged a few words with C.J.'s mother in the audience!  Shine had a good showing and has been making progress in recent months, especially in terms of showing more personality and enthusiasm in the ring.  Outlaw won a competitive match with the Mafia Kick in 8:43 and they shook hands afterwards; Outlaw also apologized to C.J.'s mom.

Paco Gonzalez vs. Brandon Espinosa:  Espy had a full night as he wrestled a tag match at SICW later in the evening; he was obviously in a hurry as he attacked Paco from behind before the opening bell could even ring.  He should probably be more careful with his trash-talking as he used some colorful language in front of a more family-based audience...whoops.  Espy reminds me a lot of Dingo in the sense that he's always evolving and working on his game; an Espinosa match from a year or so ago isn't the same match as a match he would have nowdays.  Paco's been traveling quite a bit in recent times, which can only be good for his experience level at this early stage in his game; my only recommendation would be to save the Cubs cap for when he's working as a rulebreaker in the St. Louis area.  Espy went after the arm early and often, building up to the cross-armbreaker...Paco got a few good near-falls out of his rally, but Espy grabbed him in his finishing hold out of nowhere to get the tapout in 9:18.

"The Valedictorian" Keon Option & Justin D'Air vs. The Viking War Party("American Viking" Alexandre Rudolph & "Littlest Viking" Jake Parnell):  This was an interesting matchup with the more experienced Viking duo against the up-and-coming Option & D'Air.  Similar to Outlaw's traditional handout of his bandanna to a ringside fan, Option gave out graduation caps...always appreciate fan interaction like that, but then Bret Hart was one of my first favorites and he gave out the sunglasses.  The match got a lot of time and I think the teams worked pretty well together.  Guys survived moves that would have ended a lot of other matches, but Option & D'Air pulled out the upset win after Option hit an Olympic Slam on Parnell followed by a swanton bomb by D'Air for the three-count in 13:04.

Adam Rich vs. Shane Fury:  Fury was substituting for Jayden Fenix (who was originally announced as facing Rich).  Rich hadn't competed for Dynamo in several years since being a part of the First United Church Of Karrington...his last appearance was a table match loss with Steven Kennedy against then-Tag Champs The Bumrush Brothers(Shorty Biggs & Outtkast).  I hadn't seen Fury in quite a while; he and Chris Logan had competed for the NWA Central States Championship Wrestling group a few times, but they had been regulars with Metro East Championship Wrestling prior to that.  Fury wanted to show off his skill in the art of pushups, but Rich quickly proved to be the better of the two in that department and Fury gave him a cheapshot in mid-pushup.  These guys had a solid matchup which could have realistically gone either way...Rich won with his low Pedigree(Matter Of Time?) in 9:27.

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): One root beer and a bag of chips.

"The Millenial" Danny Adams vs. The Snitch(w/ Sophie Darling):  I feel like I haven't seen a whole lot of what Snitch is capable of doing.  That's the weird dichotomy of work as a rulebreaker:  Your job isn't looking good, but making the opponent look good and cheating your way into an advantage.  Snitch pulled Sophie in the way of an Adams baseball slide in the early going, then attacked Adams from behind when he checked on the fallen manager.  Sophie was down on the floor for several minutes after that hit.  Adams, like fellow Michael Elgin trainee Paco, has become relatively well-traveled in his short career and he's come a long way in the past two years.  The finish saw Sophie recover from the baseball slide just in time to cause a distraction, allowing Snitch to deliver a low blow while the referee's back was turned.  With that, Snitch rolled up Adams for the cheap pin in 8:45.

"The Pride Of Peoria" Eric Allen, Brandon Aarons, & "The Shogun" Chris Logan vs. The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby) & ?:  Allen's in-ring career had been cut short by nagging injuries; while he had a few matches in the past several years for NWA Central States, he was never the same after being forced to forfeit the MECW Heavyweight Title due to his medical issues.  He donned the striped shirt to officiate on a few occasions, but the bad blood between himself and the Professionals surfaced at recent Wood River events.  That led to this match as Allen recruited longtime MECW ally Logan and rival-turned-friend Aarons for his side.  For their part, Santel & McDarby kept their partner's identity under wraps; the partner even made his way to the ring under a mask and nondescript casual attire to keep his identity a secret.  Both Allen and McDarby put their wrestling careers on the line, though it seemed to be set up as a one-shot return for Allen to settle the issue.

Allen worked a smart match as he didn't have to do a lot of heavy lifting in a six-man tag like this.  The masked man worked a nondistinct style for the most part so that fans wouldn't guess his identity; I was racking my brain to figure out who from MECW's past would fit into the role.  McDarby brought the old MECW Title belt with him(as he had at the previous Wood River event) to further raise Allen's ire.  At one point, the masked man did a rope-handspring into a leg lariat and I finally realized who it was, but it would be a few more minutes before his identity would be revealed.  The Professionals trio isolated Aarons for a while, then Logan...but Allen finally got in to clean house, delivering Stone Cold Stunners on both Professionals.  When he went for the move on the masked man, his opponent slipped away but lost his hood in the process...revealing "Young & Dangerous" Evan Morris, a man who had begun his wrestling career in that Wood River venue!

Allen and company were shocked by the reveal, but EA took out Morris with one more Stunner in short order.  Allen hit his corkscrew snapmare driver on McDarby but Santel broke up the pin attempt.  Undaunted, Allen got McDarby in a Boston crab but Morris distracted the referee while Santel hit Allen from behind with the MECW Title belt.  McDarby recovered enough to lock Allen in a Sharpshooter...Allen tried to hold on, but was risking permanent injury and finally tapped out in 20:47!

The Professionals and Morris took their leave, though they forgot to bring the MECW belt with them as they left.  Aarons and Logan helped Allen to his feet and he acknowledged the fans who were there to see his last match...I can remember him getting his start in Gateway Championship Wrestling in 2006 and competing all over the Midwest in the subsequent years.  He had a good run as a multi-time MECW Heavyweight Champion and also had some standout matches in Independent Hardcore Wrestling as well.  One of his final matches was an upset win over Michael Elgin, leading to a series of post-match powerbombs that nearly put him on the shelf for good.  While it's never fun to see the end of a wrestling career(especially when injuries are the determining factor), it was good to see Allen essentially go out on his own terms...he got a great sendoff from the fans in attendance in Wood River!

Outtkast vs. Jayson Khaos for the D-1 Title:  This had a hard time following the six-man tag, but I suspect they wanted to have a fan favorite win to close the show.  The absence of Khaos' manager C.J. McManus probably didn't help...the match was good but probably could have been better than it was, in my dumb fan opinion.  It came down to a finisher-countering exchange until Outtkast went back into the archives, dusting off the Lost Cause(fireman's-carry spinebuster) for the win in 10:31.  WOO~!

With Drew Abbenhaus ring-announcing at SICW and Ben Simon also at that show, I figured that the event would be over by the time I got there if I had left right away...I hung out with some of the wrestlers and fans in the bar area afterwards.  When I got home, I realized that the house was strangely warm...because I had forgotten to turn off the oven after baking a pizza for dinner.  Ak...thankfully the warmth was the worst thing that occurred as a result.

April looks like this:
-Saturday 4/2:  Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Fenton, MO
-Saturday 4/9:  Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO; Combined Martial Arts in Marion, IL
-Friday 4/15:  Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL (Terry Funk appearing)
-Saturday 4/16:  World League Wrestling in Troy, MO; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in Cape Girardeau, MO (Terry Funk appearing)
-Saturday 4/23:  High Risk Wrestling in Warsaw, MO
-Sunday 4/24:  Wrestling Invades America in Swansea, IL
-Saturday 4/30:  Pro Wrestling Championship Series in Granite City, IL; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in Millstadt, IL

That's my special comment for this, the twelfth 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.