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.

I hadn't been to the S.B.A.C. in several months as the local wrestling schedule has been busier.  I do my best to keep up on the happenings in MMWA through YouTube clips...I officially met the host of the Dirty Heinous Show who does the commentary for the live stream.  He jokingly called me on the fact that I referred to his style as "obnoxious", which was true enough and I said that he could get a little over-the-top at times.  It's his schtick; if anything, it would help to have an equal voice to speak for the other side.  While his co-host does offer the "good guy" side of things, he tends to out-shout her at times.  Just one middle-aged cranky fan's perspective...heh.

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

The show started with a ten-bell salute for Mike Flowers; he competed as part of the legendary Moondogs as Moondog Puppy Love and apparently competed as the second Moondog Rex as well.

Commissioner Jim Harris opened the show with a public service announcement of sorts, warning the fans not to get in the ring and goof around.  Apparently some people were doing that after last month's show and that's a potential liability issue if someone gets hurt.  It's a cause for concern, especially when little kids decide that it would be fun to jump around in the ring.

J-Mal Swagg vs. Brandon Aarons vs. "Infamous" Tyler Copeland vs. Varik Morgan for the Jr. Heavyweight Title:  Aarons and Copeland brought their PWE/WIA feud to MMWA last month, but their contenders' match ended in a no-contest when A.J. Williams & Da'Marius Jones attacked both men.  That led to an impromptu tag match, but Copeland walked out on Aarons and left him to lose.  Not sure how Morgan fits into this, though he had a strong showing against Jake Dirden at the February event.  The match was relatively short with Aarons primarily pairing off with Copeland while Swagg fought with Morgan.  It was good while it lasted; Aarons pinned Copeland in 6:48 after a half-nelson suplex...I understand that's called the "Hairflip Suplex".  We have a NEWWWWW MMWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion, though Swagg will probably want a rematch after not being pinned/made to submit.

Battle Royal:  The show featured two battle royals with the winners facing each other later in the night for a shot at the Heavyweight Title.  As is often the case when MMWA does multiple battle royals, a lot of the same guys were in both.  The first battle royal had thirteen participants...eleven were introduced, but Swagg assisted a still-hurting Copeland to the ring and they were both late entries.  The rest of the field was Brandon Espinosa, Clownman Jacko, "Wildchild" Billy Diamond, Mike Outlaw(making his MMWA debut), Tag Team Champion Prince Moses, "Black Panther" Johnathan Zulu, Flaming Freddie Fury, the debuting Matt Kenway, C.J. Shine, "The Millenial" Danny Adams, and Varik Morgan(who had a really long night).  Copeland was quickly eliminated by Zulu, followed by Jacko(by Diamond and Morgan with Espy assisting from the floor) and Swagg(by Adams)).  I didn't quite catch when Diamond went out and neither did Ben Simon, but I saw him leave ringside around this time(reviewing the video, Fury threw him out).  From there it was Fury(by Espy & Zulu), Adams(by Shine), Zulu(by Outlaw), Shine(by Espy & Kenway), Kenway(by Espy), and Moses(by Espy Awesome-Bombing him over the top rope onto several wrestlers!).  Outlaw eliminated Espinosa in another nod to history in other promotions, but Morgan managed to eliminate Outlaw for the win in 5:02.

The Family(Prince Moses & Damion Cortess) vs. A.J. Williams & Da'Marius Jones for the Tag Team Titles:  Moses & Cortess upset The Eternals(Espinosa & Ace Hawkins) for the belts in February; Williams & Jones earned this shot with their win over the dysfunctional duo of Aarons & Copeland.  It felt like the first part of a series between the two teams; Cortess is being eased into action by being part of a tag team.  They had a good match going, but it ended out nowhere; Jones and Cortess were fighting in the ring while Williams and Moses brawled on the floor, but the referee counted out the legal men and it led to a double countout in 11:31.  Williams & Jones dished out some post-match abuse, tying up Cortess in the ropes and beating down Moses; Jones spraypainted "2.0" on Moses' back before Baracus arrived to run them off.

Battle Royal:  This was an eleven-man battle royal with Morgan removed due to his earlier win and Moses out due to the beatdown in the previous match; "The Enforcer" Jimmy D was in place of Flaming Freddie Fury.  Williams & Jones(who had not been signed to participate in the battle royals due to their other championship opportunity) tried to storm the match but were held back by officials.  Eliminations:  Jacko by Espy, Kenway by Adams, Copeland by Outlaw, Diamond by Jimmy D, Shine by Adams, Jimmy D by Swagg(with an assist from Diamond on the floor), Swagg by Adams, Zulu by Outlaw, Outlaw by Adams.  That left Adams and Espinosa...Espy showed impressive strength by catching Adams in mid-aerial move before eliminating him in a brisk 3:27.

Intermission~!  My official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm):  Bottle of water and popcorn(both my own and what Gary Weiss had left over after he and Drew Abbenhaus left early).  Of course, being the klutz that I am, I spilled a bunch of popcorn all over the floor near the Missouri Wrestling Revival merchandise table...whoops.

Varik Morgan vs. Brandon Espinosa:  I've been impressed by Morgan's recent outings.  Drew compared him to Sami Zayn...it was probably the red hair.  Espy knocked Morgan off the top rope to start the match and immediately focused on the arm to build to the cross-armbreaker.  Williams & Jones AGAIN tried to raise a ruckus, giving Espy the opportunity to use a chair behind the referees' backs.  The ensuing pin attempt was a bit confusing as it looked like Espy got the pin, but the fall was seemingly waved off by Commissioner Jim Harris due to him seeing the illegal weapon usage.  The match continued with Morgan surviving Espy's best offense, even trading WWE finishers with him and beating the ten-count after a turnbuckle brainbuster.  The match nearly went to a time-limit draw, but Espy got the cross-armbreaker in the final minutes of the match and Varik tapped out at the 19:10 mark.  The two shook hands after the bell without incident...all righty then.

Mike Outlaw vs. "The Millenial" Danny Adams vs. Matt Kenway:  The winner would earn the next shot at the T.V. Title.  These three men(among others) had full nights as they were in both battle royals as well as this match.  Funny to think that out of the participants in the infamous "illegal match" from last year between Everett Connors and Sean Orleans, only Adams(who refereed that match) remains in MMWA.  Kenway got his welcome-to-wrestling treatment as his chest was red from the knife-edge chops he received throughout the night.  I echoed my colleague Drew's sentiment that I'm kinda burned out on multi-way matches, but this was good for what it was.  Adams pinned Kenway after the reverse Stunner in 11:34.

"Da Bomb" Brian James vs. "Dirdey" Jake Dirden for the T.V. Title:  Was really interested in this match when I heard about it.  Despite being a rulebreaker in recent months, James was the fan favorite by default against the decidedly-rulebreaking Dirden.  They had a pretty good matchup, though I thought it could have been even better...Dirden brought the title belt into the ring, but Dirden got it and BELTed James for the DQ in 9:17.  The two continued to fight after the bell until being separated by officials...I don't think this is over, but Danny Adams has the next shot at the championship.

"Fighting Irishman/Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Moondog Rover for the Heavyweight Title:  Considering Moondog's lengthy tenure in the area, it was surprising to hear Ben Simon comment that this was his first-ever shot at the MMWA Championship.  Gary was dressed in green for St. Patrick's Day and added his extra nickname for the night...he played the subtle rulebreaker role for the evening as Moondog OVAH was extremely popular as usual.  They fought it out and Gary seemed to have the advantage before Williams & Jones ran in for the Sportz Entertainment Finish/no-contest in 9:02.  Bah!  The good guys fought them off, but tension still existed between the two before Moondog left the ring area...Gary cut a promo afterwards and said that Moondog could get another title shot any time he wanted.  CUE THE RULES~!

After the show, I crossed paths with my old high school classmate Tim Forneris.  Tim had an interesting brush with fame as he was the Busch Stadium groundskeeper who retrieved Mark McGwire's record-breaking home run ball and presented it to him after the game.  He's not on social media so we did a lot of catching up...apparently he's at the South Broadway shows quite a bit, so hopefully I'll see him around there again in the near future.

The rest of March looks like this:

-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 tenth 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.