GPW Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Sunday's Glory Pro Wrestling show at the Spaulding Hall Club in Alton, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

This was the first show for Michael Elgin's new promotion and he pulled out all the stops for not only this event, but also the next two.  He booked several talents who had never competed in the St. Louis area and who I had been wanting to see in person for a long time.  (Granted, I saw some of those people at All-American Wrestling in December, but it was nice to see them a bit closer to home and I'm sure the Midwest fans who couldn't make that kind of trip were appreciative as well.)

The turnout was impressive for a first event as they drew about three hundred fans who packed the house that St. Louis Anarchy built in Alton.  The Hales Clan was in the house for the show, as was Tony Patrico from The Rizzuto Show on 105.7 The Point (I think it was Patrico's first independent show outside of Ring Of Honor).

Your ring announcer was Trina The Marky Smark; your referee was Brandon Tolle.

"The Incredible Primal Prodigy" Matt Kenway(Look At Him) & Erin Dzinic vs. Barackus & Garrett Shanks:  I walked in the door as the pre-show match was being introduced...nice timing.  Barackus was the lone rulebreaker and wasn't on the same page as his partner Shanks.  Dzinic is a Bosnian-American newcomer who was trained by Elgin; I hadn't seen him in the ring prior to this.  The finish saw Kenway deliver an exploder suplex to Shanks, setting him up for Dzinic's Penalty Kick and pin in 7:43.

Before the official opener, Trina led the fans in singing Happy Birthday to young fan A.J. (host of The A.J. Awesome Show on YouTube *cheap plug*).

Paco Gonzalez vs. "The Diamond Tiger" Kobe Durst, Crown Of Glory Title Tournament:  The tourney to crown the first champion would consist of a four first-round matches, leading into a four-way dance finale in the main event.  I wasn't familiar with Durst before this match; he's an independent wrestler out of Ontario who debuted in 2013.  Paco began training under Elgin and debuted in a Ring Of Honor dark match in Collinsville in 2014.  All four tournament matches were set up as Elgin students against more well-traveled competitors.  Paco won a competitive match with a jackknife cradle in 7:41, advancing to the finals.

"All Ego" Ethan Page vs. "The Millenial" Danny Adams, Crown Of Glory Tournament:  Adams debuted in the same ROH dark match as Paco and the two's careers have been linked since that time; they've been both tag partners and rivals in the past few years.  Page worked a ROH Collinsville show several years ago(under the alternate ring name of Ethan Gabriel Owens); I first saw him in AAW videos as one-half of The Monster Mafia with Josh Alexander.  While Page is a more natural rulebreaker, he was the fan favorite in this bout against Adams who is better known in the "bad guy" role in this area.  After a fine contest, Page won with his version of the Rock Bottom(called the "Spinning Dwayne") in 8:27.

Shigehiro Irie vs. "The Lone Star" Curt Stallion, Crown Of Glory Title Tournament:  I had never seen Irie before this show; he's a big friendly Japanese guy who just happens to be capable of ripping your limbs from your body.  Stallion has been moving up in the wrestling world with his performances across the country, earning a spot in Ring Of Honor's 2017 Top Prospect Tournament.  Stallion didn't back down from his larger opponent and took the fight to him, but that may not have been the best game plan against such a foe.  Irie won with a cool-looking sequence where he suplexed Stallion into the air and took him down in a Kokita Clutch from there!  Stallion quickly tapped out in 7:34.

"The Gift" Jason Kincaid vs. Everett Connors, Crown Of Glory Tournament:  The cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber suffered a tragic demise at CHIKARA's National Pro Wrestling Day; Connors came up short in the Young Lions' Cup Tournament despite the assistance of The Bieb.  Kincaid made a great impression in last year's ROH Top Prospect Tournament which was won by Lio Rush; I saw him at a show in Collinsville where he had a fun match with Mark Briscoe.  Kincaid has a lot of innovative offense; I compare him to A.C.H. in that he comes up with unique moves in a time period when it seems like everything has "been done".  One of the most insane moments of the match was when Kincaid caught Connors in mid-suicide dive and dropped him with a hanging Diamond Cutter to the floor!  Kincaid sunset-flipped Connors into the turnbuckles, jumped to the second rope of the adjacent corner to deliver a flying dropkick, then pulled Connors out of the corner into a modified piledriver!  That was enough for the win in 12:28, setting up a star-stutted four-way finale of Paco Gonzalez vs. Ethan Page vs. Shigehiro Irie vs. Kincaid.

"Hot Fire" Myron Reed vs. "The Miracle Worker" Davey Vega vs. Space Monkey vs. "Stiff Robo Ginger" Gary Jay vs. Mat Fitchett vs. Jason Roberts:  Glory Pro wants to make the six-way bouts a regular feature of the promotion; they operate under lucha libre rules as a wrestler can "tag out" of the match by touching the floor, thus allowing one of the other competitors to become legal by entering the ring.  Four of the competitors in the match were local while the other two were making their St. Louis-area debuts; Space Monkey has a cult following on the independent scene in Canada and recently captured the CHIKARA Young Lions' Cup.  The 19-year-old Reed is just starting to make an impact in the wrestling world, starting in tag team competition with Mickey Muscles as The Brotherhood before turning heads on his own.  The match would determine the first challenger for the Crown Of Glory Title once the inaugural champion had been, well, crowned.  This match was a ton of fun as everyone pulled out all the stops in front of the big audience; even as someone who's burnt out on multi-way schmozz matches, I considered this one of my favorite matches of the night.  Space Monkey brought plenty of bananas to the ring and partook in them as the match progressed, resulting in a wrestler or two literally slipping on a banana peel.  Reed pulled off a crazy over-the-top-rope rana on Gary, but Vega caught him in mid-air on the floor and powerbombed him into the other wrestlers!  The ending came out of nowhere as Reed hit a standing C-4(backflip uranagi) on Space Monkey in 11:39, earning the first championship opportunity at the May show!

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm):  One root beer, one Mello Yello.  I brought money to pick up a T-shirt, but Matt Riddle was sold out of most of his shirts and Space Monkey was out of XLs.  Aww.

"Dad Bod" Sean Orleans vs. Brandon Espinosa:  Orleans was grateful for the opportunity to appear on his trainer Elgin's show, but Espy was displeased with his "inferior" competition and bad-mouthed Orleans repeatedly.  Orleans stood up to Espy and came out swinging with forearms, but Espy shut him down with a quick Blue Thunder Bomb for a two-count.  He followed up with a close-range superkick for another near-fall, then hit the brainbuster for the shockingly quick win in 1:18!  I liked the change of pace and they're clearly building up something as Orleans seeks to earn respect against tough competition.

Shane Sabre vs. Jake Something:  Sabre worked a St. Louis Anarchy preshow match several years ago; my obvious joke was that my money was on the guy with long hair and facial hair.  Trina gave Something a particularly inspired introduction, saying that he was from "Somewhere" and weighed in at "Whatever".  Something enjoys shouting out his name at random intervals, similar to Todd Letterman/Kevin Lee Davidson nowadays, so the Pokemon joke was a given.  These were probably the least-"known" names on the show and that may have affected the fan interest, but it boosted the fans' energy level after the surprisingly quick bout that preceded it.  Something scored the victory after a sliding lariat to the back of the head in 11:34.

MsChif made her first wrestling-related appearance in several years...she hadn't competed since having her son and she was hyped as addressing her in-ring future.  She wore her wrestling attire, which I would qualify as A Good Sign(tm), but she gave the non-answer of "never say never" as it related to a potential return to action.  She announced that she was the head of the Glory Pro championship committee and there were plans to bring women's wrestling to the company in the future...woo.

Matt Riddle vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin for the Progress Wrestling Atlas Title:  I saw Riddle for the first time at the AAW show in December; he's been compared to Kurt Angle as he's adapted to the pro wrestling game with incredible ease.  He competed in mixed martial arts and did well in that environment before being released by the Ultimate Fighting Championship promotion.  Elgin's record speaks for itself as he's competed all over the world, winning multiple notable championships including the Ring Of Honor Heavyweight Title, the IWGP Intercontinental Title, and the AAW Heavyweight Title.  This was a really fun strong-style bout and the two worked very well together in their first-ever meeting...wouldn't mind seeing these two cross paths again.  Riddle's winning combo consisted of the "Bro 2 Sleep" followed by a middle-rope springboard into a flying knee strike, earning him the hard-fought victory in 13:54!  Hope to see Riddle back in the area down the line...still want to pick up one of his T-shirts.

MsChif did the more formal introductions for the main event...

Paco Gonzalez vs. "All Ego" Ethan Page vs. Shigehiro Irie vs. "The Gift" Jason Kincaid, Crown Of Glory Title Tournament Final:  Page shifted into a more aggressive style to balance out the sides (as all four men were fan favorites to varying degrees).  Paco was a major underdog compared to the other three competitors in the match, but he hung around for a lot longer than expected.

The match went almost fifteen minutes before any eliminations occurred; Page was surprisingly the first to go in 13:40 as Kincaid pinned him after springboarding from the second rope into the ring for a corkscrew Stone Cold Stunner.  Irie caught Paco in the same suplex/Kokita Clutch that he used to beat Curt Stallion earlier in the night, but Paco bridged back for a flash pin in 14:54 to eliminate Irie!  That left Paco alone with Kincaid as the final two...Kincaid earned a lot of fans on this night, but Paco had his local supporters and got quite a few fans behind him.  Paco survived incredible punishment from Kincaid but it was too much for him in the end; Kincaid got him in a trapped-arm dragon sleeper and Paco passed out in the hold, forcing the referee to call for the bell in 19:47!  Jason Kincaid had become the first Crown Of Glory Champion!

The promotion had a full-fledged press conference after the show to push the title match at the next show (Kincaid defending against Reed); that show on May 7th will also feature Elgin against Penta El Cero Miedo(aka Pentagon Jr./Dark).  Most tremendous.

After the event, I checked an item off my bucket list with my first trip to Fast Eddie's Bon-Air in Alton; several of the wrestlers and fans went to Fast Eddie's as well, including Riddle and Elgin.  I opted for the Fat Eddie burger with fries and a root beer...good stuff.

Tonight is the National Wrasslin' League's bi-weekly offering in St. Louis, MO with three St. Louis Title tournament matches on the docket:  Matthew Grundy vs. Cal Stark, Davey Gibson vs. Cornell Douglass, and Dez Wellston vs. Adam Ryan.  Also, in the latest battle between the St. Louis and Kansas City rosters, Jay Lutz will go one-on-one with Blaine Meeks in what should be a tremendous matchup.  As for the weekend proper, Dynamo Pro Wrestling makes its debut in Alton, IL at the Mineral Springs Mall...woo-hoo.

That's my special comment for this, the seventh wrestling show I've attended in the year 2017.  Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.

-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991

P.S. We are all marks.