Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Dynamo Pro Wrestling show at the Stratford Inn in Fenton, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
Most
of the usual crew was in the house on Saturday night with a handful of
exceptions; Heavyweight Champion "Dirdey" Jake Dirden was wrestling
elsewhere, so the MWR Missouri Title match was the featured bout of the
evening. The attendance was a bit light, but a combination of nicer
weather and oversaturation of other sports(hockey playoffs!) will be a
cross that live entertainment will have to bear for the moment. Hung
out with Jesse Favre for most of the show as she was in town for the
weekend.
The Missouri Wrestling Revival MO Title started an
interesting discussion on social media in the past few days. To be
fair, I'm as guilty as anybody of taking this stuff too seriously.
People have been able to coexist relatively well on this independent
scene in recent times, but I imagine the drama will never totally go
away. By its very nature, show business of any kind is full of egos
that often get bruised pretty easily. Oh well...such is rasslin life.
Your
ring announcer was Chris Roedel, your assistant ring announcer was Luke
Roberts, and your referees were Patrick Hook & Jay King.
The
show started with Brian Kelley presenting the 2015 Tag Team Of The Year
plaques to High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb). The
ceremony was interrupted by The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler
McDarby), who used underhanded tactics to beat HLE for the Tag Team
Titles at the April show...they said the awards were nice but the title
belts were even better. Of course, it would be a real downer for HLE to
win those awards and then fall short in their return match for the
belts...but we'll get to that later.
Rocket Mapache vs. C.J.
Shine: Shine faced fan favorites in both of his matches on Saturday...I
don't know if that means he's being positioned as an eventual
rulebreaker, but time will tell how the fans react to his character. It
was a quick competitive matchup, ending with Rocket avoiding a kick and
getting the rollup pin in 4:00.
"The Valedictorian" Keon Option
& Justin D'Air vs. Billy McNeil & Jayson Khaos(w/ C.J. McManus):
The fan support was divided in this one as Option & D'Air are
popular, but so is Billy McNeil. The story of the match was the
dissension between the Midnight Society members as Khaos and McManus
wanted to break the rules and McNeil did not. The tension turned into a
full-blown argument by the end of the match as they could have gotten
the win over D'Air but lost focus. Option took the opportunity to jump
in the ring and blitz Khaos with a series of moves, ending in an axe
kick that led to D'Air scoring the three-count in 13:00. The Society
totally fell apart after the bell as McNeil shoved C.J. to the mat and
picked up a chair on his way out of the ring...but the sides parted ways
without further incident.
Outtkast vs. Kiyoshi Shizuka(w/ Lucy
Mendez) for the D-1 Title: Shizuka traded wins with Outtkast's tag team
partner Shorty Biggs in recent months. While Lucy has her share
of...admirers, I'll say...she does really well in her role as a
rulebreaking manager. I've commented a lot on my desire for more
women's wrestling in this area; hopefully the wheels are in motion for
that to happen soon. I don't know much about the masked newcomer
Shizuka, but he's had solid matches in his handful of in-ring
appearances. Lucy was nearly a factor in the outcome as she caused a
distraction, allowing Shizuka to hit Outtkast with his Japanese flag
pole behind the referee's back. He followed up with a Perfectplex, but
Outtkast barely kicked out before the three-count. The masked
challenger set up to finish with a brainbuster, but Outtkast
small-packaged him for the flash pin in 12:21 to retain his title.
Hopefully Outtkast will get a bigger feud over his championship in the
near future.
Makaze vs. "The Alternative" Ozzie Gallagher: Sadie
Blaze made a surprise return to Dynamo Pro a few months ago and
immediately had issues with his former student Gallagher over his
underhanded tactics. He especially took issue with Gallagher's
disrespect toward masked wrestlers like Rocket, which is understandable
given his masked alter-ego Makaze. Gallagher stole Rocket's mask on one
occasion and kept trying to swipe it again after Rocket reclaimed it;
that finally drove Blaze to take matters into his own hands and bring
"Makaze" back into action. Makaze's one of the only guys from the first
independent show I attended(in the spring of 2000) who's still working
today. The match itself was solid as a first chapter in the series...a
near-ref bump allowed Gallagher to deliver a punt to the Universal Weak
Point, then roll him up in a modified Oklahoma roll for the cheap pin in
8:40. I somehow suspect that this issue is not quite over, regardless
of Gallagher's sentiment on the matter...
"The Millenial" Danny
Adams vs. "The Filipino Warrior" Elvis Aliaga(w/ Lucy Mendez): Good
heel wrestlers can take some time to appreciate and I feel like I've
turned that corner with regards to Aliaga; he's very underrated. Adams
has proven his versatility in recent months as I've seen him work in
both the fan favorite and rulebreaking roles. They had a really good
matchup and Lucy got involved on more than one occasion...that led to
Elvis rolling him up for the pin with feet on the ropes in 11:04. (Side
note: The schoolboy rollup is REALLY overused in wrestling nowadays; I
wish people would be a bit more creative, and not just stemming from
distraction finishes.)
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon
Concession Count: I took advantage of the free refills and had a
trifecta of Coca-Colas. I also swiped a few French fries from
Jesse...bwahahaha.
Mike Outlaw vs. "The Yoga Monster" Mike Sydal:
These two nearly crossed paths a while back as Outlaw and Justin D'Air
had been scheduled to face Mike and his brother Matt, but Matt's travel
issues ixnayed that potential bout. This was a battle of fan favorites
and a good one; I'll never quite understand why Ring Of Honor didn't do
more with Sydal. I joked that my money was on Mike to win this match
and at least one fan tried to start a "Let's Go Mike" chant...MARKET
CONFUSION~! Sydal made the fatal mistake of dropping his yoga mat and
going out to retrieve it for the sake of his Yogasault...Outlaw had
enough time to roll out of the way of the move, then finished with the
Mafia Kick in 12:23. Nicely done.
Post-match, Outlaw
acknowledged Dirden's absence and said he hadn't had a fair rematch for
the title since losing it in May of the previous year. He said that he
wanted his title shot...and if Dirden wouldn't give it to him, then he
would stay on his trail until he got it. Glad to see he's getting back
into the title hunt...woo.
The Professionals(Shawn Santel &
Mauler McDarby) vs. High Level Enterprise(Jack Gamble & Jon Webb)
for the Tag Team Titles: As noted, Santel & McDarby had captured
the belts under dubious circumstances in April; this was the rematch. I
think these teams are good foils for each other and I hope the series
will continue after this point. Option & D'Air watched the match
from ringside and seem to be positioned as future challengers. There's
also the possibility of the Black Hand Warriors re-entering the
championship picture, not to mention the Midnight Society in whatever
form it may take. The finish saw HLE isolate McDarby; Gamble picked up
McDarby on his shoulders and held him for a superkick from Webb, then
delivered a fireman's-carry Michinoku Driver for the winning fall in
13:12...Gamble & Webb are now two-time Dynamo Pro Tag Team
Champions! Option & D'Air made a point to hand the belts to the new
champions...just like that, the hunters are once again the hunted.
"The
King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz vs. Brandon Espinosa for the MWR Missouri
Title: The history between these two runs deep over the past few years,
including a brief reign as Dynamo Tag Champs. While it's a source of
bitterness for Espinosa that he had to start at the bottom of this
promotion and claw his way to the top, Ricky has been a two-time
Heavyweight Champion as well as SICW Classic Champion. These two had an
altercation at the Cinco De Mayo show that led to Cruz pinning Espy in a
six-man tag. The pre-match promos set up the bout as a sportsmanlike
contest between the two, though both men have been known to throw the
rulebook out the window. Each guy withstood the best that the other had
to offer, including Espinosa surprisingly kicking out after the Cruz
Control(swinging fisherman buster). Cruz unloaded with kicks, but Espy
ducked the last one and rolled him up for the shockingly clean pinfall
in 15:18! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a newwwww MWR Missouri
Champion!
Ricky was stunned but took the loss graciously at
first...of course, Espinosa couldn't just leave it alone and rubbed the
loss in Cruz's face. When he demanded that Cruz fulfill his promise to
raise his arm after the match, Ricky did so...only to punctuate his
action with a superkick to the mush. The new champion was laid out as
the show wrapped up...
That was a full weekend...after touching
base with a bunch of people at the venue, I joined Brian Kelley, Ben
Simon, and Timothy Miller at Denny's for a Grand Slamwich and root beer.
Good times.
The rest of May looks like this:
-Saturday 5/14:
World League Wrestling in Troy, MO (Ricky Steamboat appearing);
Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO; World Powerhouse
Wrestling in Kampsville, IL
-Friday 5/20: St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL
-Saturday 5/21: St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in
East Carondelet, IL; World Powerhouse Wrestling in Collinsville, IL
-Sunday 5/22: Wrestling Invades America in Swansea, IL
-Saturday 5/28: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in St. Louis, MO (Ready Room)
That's
my special comment for this, the twentieth 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment