Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's St. Louis Anarchy show at the Spaulding Hall Club in Alton, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
It was a busy Saturday in the Midwest rasslin scene as talent was spread out across several show. World League Wrestling had their big summer show with special guests Mark Henry, Hurricane Helms, and Dave Taylor. Other events included Cape Championship Wrestling in Cape Girardeau and Metro Pro Wrestling in Kansas City. (I kicked myself for reminding myself about Jake Dirden being at CCW, as that decreased the possibility of Dirden winning the SLA Title on Friday...)
Since everything was set up beforehand, the doors opened more or less on time (6:30). It was raining pretty hard and attendance looked low at first, but the building filled out nicely. Sign of my age: There was a LOUD thunderclap right before I got in the door and I said out loud to myself "That was a good one..."
Your ring announcer was Sarah Rose; your referees were Jay King, Austin Blackburn, Sean Orleans, and one new guy who I didn't recognize. (Larry Zbyszko to Mike Tenay: "YOU don't KNOW? FIRE HIM.")
Jeff Gant, Tank Engine Tommy, & Kody Krash vs. The Diamond Dogs(Luke Langley & Graham Bell) & Tyler Colton: Gant, Langley, and Bell were back for their second preshow match in as many nights. Tank Engine Tommy(Thomas Muños) made his SLA debut after several appearances at Pro Wrestling Championship Series; I think Krash had been in preshow matches for SLA before this and had also competed for PWCS. Colton was the only total unknown to me; he's billed as hailing from Canada. They had a solid preshow match with the Dogs emerging victorious; Bell pinned Tommy after the Dogs hit an enzuigiri/Diamond Cutter combo in 5:04.
Team Gary Jay and Team Stone came out to re-establish the point system for the Bragging Rights series(pinfall 5, submission 10, knockout 20) as well as the current store (Stone 15, Jay 10). More words were exchanged and Team Stone walked away from the offered handshakes.
"The Leader Of The Pack" Stephen Wolf vs. Jason Roberts: Roberts is still new but the potential is there; I look forward to seeing where he'll be in a year or so. Have liked what I've seen of Wolf and hope to see him against opponents who are higher in the pecking order. Roberts got a near-win with a triangle choke that the fans totally bought into, but Wolf fought out and won with the Blue Thunder Bomb in 7:21.
"The Incredible Primal Prodigy" Matt Kenway (Look At Him) vs. Slade Porter: Kenway is another rookie who's been making good impressions in the area; he's already wrestled for several promotions and has shown a lot of promise. This weekend was my first time seeing Porter; I'll have to look up some of his other work. Both guys were looking for an establishing win in SLA; Kenway got the duke with a swinging fisherman suplex in 7:14.
Jojo Bravo vs. Aaron Solow, Bragging Rights Match: Solow defeated Curt Stallion the previous night while Jojo beat Aaron Epic. As I noted in the previous commentary, it seemed like Team Gary Jay should attempt more submission or knockout wins...though not all of them have established finishing holds and only Gary Jay himself seems to have the track record for KO victories. Both guys had some momentum from the previous night's wins, but Solow targeted Bravo's arm en route to the tapout victory via Fujiwara armbar in 8:17. That widened Team Stone's lead to 25-10, putting Team Gary Jay in a serious deficit.
Team I.O.U.("The Down-South Dandy" Nick Iggy & "The Music City Mutt" Kerry Awful) vs. Dangerous Deveroux & Orange Lazarus(w/ Greg Jovi, Makaze, Bahamut, Dash Rando, Super Electros, Rebelucha, & Intrepidus): Jovi's crew made their debut the previous night by attacking Team I.O.U., setting up this matchup. The extra masked men stood at random spots around the building as "guards" of some sort. The fans were not kind to the hooded interlopers, booing their efforts against the newly-popular Iggy & Awful. It seemed like Iggy and Awful would cruise to victory, but the masked duo showed surprising teamwork to pull out the upset win; Deveroux broke up Awful's piledriver attempt on Lazarus with a neckbreaker and Lazarus got a jackknife cradle for the three-count in 12:20. Jovi berated the fans for thinking his stable was a joke and vowed that he had more up his sleeve for the November show...hmm...
"The Lone Star" Curt Stallion vs. Aaron Epic, Bragging Rights Match: Both guys were attempting to rebound from losses the previous night; Stallion had tapped out to Aaron Solow and Epic had lost to Jojo. Stallion made a good accounting for himself as a last-minute replacement for the weekend, but Epic had something to prove as well...as Stone noted earlier in the night, they hadn't traveled such a long way to lose. Epic got the victory with a Canadian Destroyer in 8:25, putting Team Stone in a commanding lead at 30-10.
Gary Jay vs. "Do Or Die" Chip Day, Bragging Rights Match: It was up to the team captain Gary Jay to turn the tide for his squad...speaking of which, it seems as though the "Gerald James" monicker has fallen by the wayside (this was the only promotion where he had wrestled under that name). Gary had fallen in the captains' battle to Martin Stone on Friday while Day had lost to Davey Vega. Day's endless list of nicknames was once again relayed to new ring announcer Sarah Rose...and both guys started the match off fast with huge dives to the floor. They had an excellent competitive matchup...I thought Gary would have been best served to look for the knockout, but he got the pinfall victory after a roaring elbow in 17:04. That improved his team's standing, but they were still behind Team Stone by a score of 30-15...meaning Vega would have to defeat Stone by knockout for Team Gary Jay to emerge victorious.
The remaining members of The Cause(Evan Gelistico, Danny Adams, & Everett Connors) made their way to the ring to confront referee Austin Blackburn. Adam Caster had announced on social media that Friday's match was his last; his other life ventures have taken precedence, so he is stepping away from in-ring competition. Make your own jokes about wrestling retirements, but Adam Caster/Raw was a major player in this area when he was a regular competitor...all the best to him in his proverbial future endeavors. The Cause challenged Blackburn to face them in the ring, asking him whether he wanted to be a wrestler or an official. Blackburn received unexpected backup in the form of new Tag Team Champions Roscoe Eat Lisa(Zakk Sawyers & Mikey Mcfinnegan), setting up a six-man tag for later in the evening.
Intermission~! I kept it simple on this night with one root beer...I keep telling myself to limit the sugar intake before I end up with bigger health problems, so I need to get used to drinking more water. #olderthanilook
"Absolute" Ricky Starks vs. Slade Sludge: #takeaknee Starks has become a highlight of these shows...hopefully he will truly get to the bigger stage on a regular basis. Starks won a good match with the Angel's Wings in 10:24...perhaps he should refer to that move as the "Ode To Paul" or something along those lines. After the match, Starks called all of "the boys" out to the ring for his "farewell speech"...the fans chanted "we will miss you" again as Starks said that he gave Sludge the best match he'd ever had. He won't be around forever, but he'll be moving up to the big time soon...and he promised Aaron Solow that he would say hi to Bayley(Solow's real-life girlfriend) when he sees her again. Bwahahaha. As a capper, some of the wrestlers carried Starks to the backstage area as the sound guy cued up "Leave The Memories Alone"...amazing.
Tag Team Champions Roscoe Eat Lisa("Zesty" Zakk Sawyers & "The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan) & Austin Blackburn vs. The Cause(Evan Gelistico, Danny Adams, & Everett Connors): If R.E.L. and Blackburn won, Blackburn would become a full-time wrestler; if The Cause won, Blackburn would be stuck as an official. I was wondering about the possibility of Blackburn double-crossing the Tag Champs, but he played it straight...of course, the belts weren't at stake here. I also wondered about Sean Orleans stepping into the rulebreaker referee role for The Cause, but that didn't come to pass either...as it turns out, I just suck at predictions. The Cause had gone 0-for-3 on Friday and their terrible horrible no-good very-bad weekend continued here; Gelistico attempted a powerbomb on Blackburn, but Sawyers and McFinnegan helped him block the move and reverse it into a rana pin in 17:11.
"The Ace Of Anarchy" Davey Vega vs. "The Guvnor" Martin Stone, Bragging Rights Match: Vega had a monumental task ahead of him...the only way for his team to win the series was a knockout victory against the man who had already beaten his own team captain Gary Jay. It was a hard-hitting war between two great competitors and it could have easily gone either way. However, the battle of attrition went in the favor of "The Guvnor" as he dropped Vega with multiple headbutts, then beat him down with forearms to the back of the head; the referee called for the bell in 21:54 as a result of a knockout! Team Stone had won by a score of 50-15...both teams' members came to the ring as Vega was gracious in defeat and the fans chanted "Please Come Back" to the members of Team Stone!
Mat Fitchett vs. Paco Gonzalez for the Heavyweight Title: Fitchett was ready for a fight after the previous night's cheapshot superkick from Paco...they had a tough act to follow after the hard-hitting battle between Vega and Stone, but they brought out the heavy artillery in the name of the championship. The two brawled to the floor and Fitchett threw Paco into the wall, leaving a hole! Each man survived the other's best shots, but Fitchett finally delivered his second AND third torture-rack Go 2 Sleeps in rapid succession for the win in 13:03! The two shook hands afterwards...Paco proved himself to be a worthy contender, but Fitchett's title reign rolls on!
I hung around to annoy people afterwards, as usual...I was hungry at that point in the night, so I stopped at Jack In The Box for a buttery bacon-and-Swiss burger combo meal. Mmm, delicious infidel meat.
This has been a long day, so I won't linger here...I appreciate those of you who contacted me today and I'm very fortunate to have as many friends and acquaintances as I do nowadays. At any rate, tune in next time...same Pat-Time, same Pat-Channel.
That's my special comment for this, the thirty-seventh 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.
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