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 was fortunate to get out of work with time to spare in order to make it to South Broadway on Saturday evening. It was a packed house, even moreso than usual...saw Evil Jim and Crystal Yount there as well as Herb Simmons and Pierre Abernathy. I hung out with Drew Abbenhaus, Chris Kaelin, and Mike Outlaw for most of the night (each in his own preferred state of inebriation).
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Jay King and Nick Ridenour.
Brandon Espinosa vs. "The" Ace Hawkins for the MWR Missouri Title: This was unusual match positioning, especially since anyone would have had trouble following these guys going full blast in a lengthy opening bout. The two had identical wristbands to reference their previous partnership; it was odd to see Espinosa as the fan favorite, as Ace had turned on him at the October show. It's become a tradition in Espinosa matches that he and his opponent trade WWE finishers and counters...they even tried to pull off the curbstomp/RKO sequence from a few WrestleManias ago but it didn't come off as well as they would have liked. Hawkins went for a flying DDT, but Espy pushed him off into the referee...that led to Ace leaving the ring to get the title belt. They had a tug-of-war over the championship, but Espy noticed that the referee was recovering...so he released the belt and fell to the mat. #yayeddyguerrero As a result, Espinosa won by DQ in 24:16(!) to retain his title...all righty then. I had joked that the title COULDN'T change hands because Brian Kelley wasn't there...heh.
Super Electro vs. B.T. Daramola(w/ Da'Marius Jones): This went to the other end of the spectrum as it was over quickly. B.T. faked a knee injury and Jones slid into the ring to hit the Paydirt on Electro as the official was checking on B.T. B.T. rose to his feet to show that his knee was just fine, thank you very much, and he got the easy pin in 1:50.
Moondog Rover vs. "The Enforcer" Jimmy D, dog collar match: D was understandably hesitant to be linked to the ever-popular Moondog by the chained collar. It was your standard-issue brawl between the two...hey, the fans were into the action and that's what counts. Moondog dropped Jimmy D with his trademark World's Strongest Slam, then added a bit of extra pain by clocking D with his ever-present bone; that ended things at 9:19.
T.V. Champion "The Millenial" Danny Adams vs. Jr.^H^H^HBeiberweight Champion "Risky Business" Everett Connors, non-title: Connors returned to the MMWA in August and regained the Jr. Heavyweight Title from Brandon Aarons, then cost Adams the T.V. Title to Brian James later in the night. Adams would regain the belt from James in October, leading to this champion-vs.-champion grudge match. They know each other very well (and, in fact, have been tag team partners in St. Louis Anarchy) and had a really good competitive matchup. The cardboard cutout of Justin Beiber was left in the backstage area; it was for its own safety after the heinous assault by a random kid in the audience at a Pro Wrestling Championship Series show. They traded near-falls down the home stretch, but the match ended in a 15:00 time-limit draw with Adams holding Connors in the Sharpshooter. Adams wanted overtime and Commissioner Jim Harris granted it to him...but under the caveat that the T.V. Title would be on the line. They quickly returned to the fight and Adams finally scored the win with the reverse Stunner in 1:15 of the restart (16:15 total)...tremendous.
Intermission~! I hadn't eaten dinner before work, so I had a wallet full of tip money and put it to good use. The Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Mountain Dew, cheeseburger and fries, Pepsi, popcorn(borrowed from Drew), and another Mountain Dew. #dietstartstomorrow
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson, Big Jim Hoffarth, Deacon Cash, & Garrett Shanks vs. "Da Bomb" Brian James, Barackus, & Tag Team Champions The Raw Dogs("The Incredible Primal Prodigy" Matt Kenway (Look At Him) & Jason Roberts), elimination tag match: Since it was the November show, they had this bout in the style of Survivor Series. Shanks was a last-minute replacement for Damion Cortess; this was his MMWA debut. This was a return to action for Deacon Cash(fka Laurence Johnson); he'd been MIA for about a year. They went quite a while before any eliminations happened, which I appreciated; it makes people look weak when this style of match is rushed and people are beaten quickly. Gary enlightened everyone on his RULES~! before the match...which is like Kane triggering his pyro before a match, in that you things will end badly for him and he won't be able to do it after the bout.
The good guys drew first blood when Cash pinned Roberts after a huge lariat in 13:07 (Ben didn't announce elimination times, but I got them from Timothy Miller's YouTube video). Kenway decided to leave with his tag team partner, literally carrying him to the backstage area...that led to him being counted out in 13:53. Things would not improve for the rulebreaking side as James crossed paths with his recent rival Jackson; James went for his signature sitout gourdbuster, but Jackson small-packaged him for the three-count in 16:18. That left Barackus on his own, but sheer mass would turn the tide...the format of the match reminded me of the 1990 Survivor Series match between Nikolai Volkoff's Alliance and Sgt. Slaughter's Mercenaries. (The good guys eliminated all but Slaughter, but then Slaughter single-handedly whittled down his opposition until it was one-on-one). Shanks tried his hand, but took a clawhold Flatliner and was pinned in 17:45. Next up was Cash, who put up an admirable fight but fell prey to a clawhold chokeslam in 19:53. Hoffarth was more of a match for Barackus in terms of size and power, but Barackus impressively caught the Big Texan in a Baldo Bomb for his third elimination in 21:20. That left Gary Jackson and Barackus in a one-on-one situation...it took everything Jackson had to get the big man down in position for the Texas Cloverleaf. However, Brian James stuck his nose into the proceedings once again; that distraction was enough of an opening for Barackus to catch the Night Train in the clawhold. The veteran Jackson got to the ropes and the referee called for the break, but the big man elbowed the official to the mat (hard to tell if it was an accident). Barackus thought he had won, but the ref disqualified him for striking an official; that gave the win to sole survivor Gary Jackson and his team in 25:34! Barackus continued his assault after the bell until both referees restored order.
J-Mal Swagg vs. Da'Marius Jones(w/ B.T. Daramola): This had the same hurdle as the second match of the show, as they also had to follow a lengthy and heated contest. On top of that, they teased another draw in this one as they came very close to the ten-minute limit. B.T. got in his cheapshots and Jones focused on the leg, going for the anklelock on several occasions. He finally added the leg grapevine to the hold a la Kurt Angle for the tapout in 9:51.
A.J. Williams(w/ B.J. Daramola) vs. Kevin Lee Davidson for the Heavyweight Title: K.L.D. won the King of St. Louis Cup Tournament and cashed in his title shot for this show. With the news flying about K.L.D. "leaving the territory" in the near future, it seemed like Williams had a good chance of retaining the gold...but we thought the same way with a guy named "The Future" Donovan Ruddick as well. (He won the MMWA Heavyweight Title from Dave Vaughn right before departing for Florida Championship Wrestling, but lost it to Gary Jackson the following month.) Notably, Williams was billed at 201 pounds for the purposes of being in the heavyweight division. Davidson had a huge advantage in size and power, but Williams had the edge in speed, agility, and experience. A.J. relied heavily on his trademark superkick and nearly scored the win with the 450 Splash(a move he hadn't used in a long time), but K.L.D. kicked out of a delayed pin attempt. B.T. interfered in the match on several occasions; the referee was briefly knocked down at one point, so he jumped in the ring and tried to hold K.L.D. for A.J.'s superkick. However, Davidson powered out of B.T.'s grip and it was the bodyguard who took Williams' kick to the face. K.L.D. capitalized with his signature spinebuster to win the Heavyweight Title in 10:00!
Now, the rest of the story...
It had been rumored that a big backstage meeting took place prior to the event and that the topic of discussion was the National Wrestling League. I wasn't there first-hand, but reportedly wrestlers were told that they wouldn't be welcome back to the MMWA if they worked for NWL. As a result, the MMWA Facebook page posted on Sunday to wish six wrestlers well in their future endeavors: Jr. Heavyweight Champion Everett Connors, T.V. Champion Danny Adams, Tag Team Champions Matt Kenway & Jason Roberts, Mike Outlaw, and Evan Gelistico. That left the majority of their championships vacant; some people told me that the wrestlers quit the company and MMWA was putting their "spin" on it, but I wasn't there so I only have second-hand information on what happened. Pierre Abernathy was at the show and was kicked out the building at some point in the first half(the alleged reason was that he didn't buy a ticket, but his new association with NWL may have been a factor as well); apparently Outlaw was close to being ejected as well. (Again, I wasn't there for the incident so I can't speak from first-hand experience.)
On Monday, Kevin Lee Davidson stood with his fellow Michael Elgin trainees and said that he would NOT return to the MMWA to defend his newly-won title on December 3rd, instead appearing for Metro Pro Wrestling that night. With that, all of the promotion's championships were left vacant...it's unclear why they didn't rearrange the night's lineup in order to get the belts off the departing wrestlers (or why they put the belt on K.L.D....I can only assume they expected him to drop the title to someone in December). Elgin himself was very vocal on social media against the promotion. It's unfortunate that, while the in-ring product has improved a great deal in the time I've followed wrestling at South Broadway, it seems as though the management side of things hasn't changed all that much.
I have to work on Saturday and Sunday, so no wrestling shows for me on those nights. I will be off on Friday evening to attend the final St. Louis Anarchy show...I don't think I ever missed one of their events and that streak will be completed this week as the company joins the NWL. I'll probably write something more extensive about the promotion in my commentary on the event itself...stay tuned, as they say.
That's my special comment for this, the forty-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.
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