WOE Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about Sunday's Wrestling Over Everything show at the Improvement Hall in Swansea, Illinois.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

With Sunday off work, Swansea was a quick trip to one wrestling show for the weekend.  I knew very little about the lineup outside of the main event, so I didn't quite know what to expect...I'll leave it at that.

Your ring announcers were Chris Kaelin & Mo Kennedy Romero; your referees(all equipped with Ref Cam) were Jason Pemberton, Brian Fox, and Richard White.

Before the opening match, The Landlord approached LaMarcus Clinton and offered his managerial support...L.M.C. came close to capturing the Heavyweight Title but lost to Leone Mephisto at the previous event.  L.M.C. teased throwing away the Rent's Due T-shirt, but finally put it on...ladies and gentlemen, we have a heel turn.

Frodo Meyer vs. LaMarcus Clinton(w/ The Landlord):  I recognized Meyer from one of Dynamo Pro's training videos on Facebook...the green mohawk is pretty distinctive.  He made his St. Louis-area debut in the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance the previous night.  With Landlord by his side, Clinton's attitude took an arrogant turn as he insisted on attempting his corkscrew standing moonsault on several occasions...only to miss each time.  Meyer looked decent for a relative newcomer, though he made the mistake of attempting a springboard move in this particular venue...Justin D'Air should have warned him about that.  At least Meyer was able to adjust and pull off a flying tornado DDT out of the situation.  Landlord got a bit too jumpy for his own good as he blatantly interfered with a baking pan, getting his new charge disqualified in 7:12.  The beatdown continued after the match...Frodo was the official winner of the bout, but he didn't look like a winner by the end of things.

#PROSTATUS(Shane The Pain Train & David X) vs. The Sabotage Squad(Krispy 2 Pop & John Boi)(w/ unnamed cornerman):  I hadn't seen Krispy since the days of Mid-America Xtreme Wrestling; he and his cohorts are of the Juggalo persuasion.  I hadn't seen any of the other three, though I'd seen their names in show lineups; #PROSTATUS had the edge in the actual-gear department on this night.  Chaos erupted near the end as Krispy had trouble keeping Shane's shoulders on the mat with his victory roll pin attempt, but he finally repeated the move and got the fall with John Boi lending an illegal hand from the floor in 7:00.

Jeff Gant vs. B.T. Daramola:  I hadn't seen Gant in a while; he's a regular in Texas promotions but occasionally appears in the Midwest.  Gant fought an uphill battle against his larger opponent, but there was only so much he could do (the low ceiling didn't help).  B.T. scored the win with a Ron Simmons-style spinebuster in 5:45.

Barackus vs. Brandon Espinosa:  For those keeping score, Barackus was the fan favorite in this one.  Barackus relieved Espy of the MWR Missouri Title at MMWA in January, so some cross-promotional retribution was on Espy's mind.  Espinosa targeted the arm after ramming Barackus' shoulder into the ringpost, hoping to wear him down for the cross-armbreaker...but he was never able to get the big man in the right position for the hold.  One young fan shouted something along the lines of "Where's your green card?" at Espy, prompting the angry retort "I WAS BORN IN ST. LOUIS!"  (Stay classy, wrestling fans.)  The arm work wasn't enough to neutralize the size and power difference as Barackus won with the clawhold chokeslam in 13:30.

After the match, Espy got the microphone and talked about his own family heritage as well as his wife and child, saying that there's too much prejudice in the world nowadays.  He got a positive response for his words, though he made it clear that he still didn't care for some of the fans.  Heh.

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm):  Hot dog(I slept late and didn't eat dinner before I went to the show), chips, and root beer.

"Infamous" Tyler Copeland came out and said that he'd been gaining momentum lately, so why wasn't he in the discussion of Heavyweight Title contenders?  He suggested that Leone Mephisto might be afraid of him...but for the moment, he wanted to prove himself against one of the most underrated guys in the Midwest:  Da'Marius Jones.  He called Jones out to the ring and they agreed to face each other at the March 19th show...but Jones attacked him from behind before leaving the ring.  Copeland(not dressed to compete) challenged Jones to fight him right then and there...and thus the impromptu match began.

"Infamous" Tyler Copeland vs. "2.0" Da'Marius Jones:  One could argue that Copeland never fully recovered from Jones' attack...the match was competitive, but Jones picked up a slight upset win with the Paydirt in 4:31.  Presumably they'll meet again in March, so Copeland can get his payback at that time.

Leone Mephisto(w/ Ace Roberts) vs. "The Roman Dynasty" Karim Brigante(w/ Miss Monica Passeri) for the Heavyweight Title:  Mephisto claimed that he needed a manager just to carry his championship belts (he still has the Wrestling Invades America belt despite it no longer being active).  Mephisto is one guy who will go above and beyond with his trash-talking to establish himself as the "bad guy" in a situation; in the video promos, he said that America wasn't so much the "land of opportunity" as it was a place of corruption.  He said that once he got done with Brigante, he would show his lady a thing or two about "what you have to do to get ahead in America".  Brigante recently returned to the U.S. and quickly made waves in this area, capturing the World League Wrestling Heavyweight Title the previous weekend and then defeating "The Freestyle Phenom" Jay Howard for the NWA Missouri Title on Saturday for NWA Central States Championship Wrestling.  They had a really good main-event matchup with Ace Roberts running interference and Monica attempting to counteract his presence...Karim nearly won with Paydirt at one point but Ace put Mephisto's foot on the bottom rope.  The referee was knocked down by accident and Brigante had Mephisto beaten after the roaring elbow, but there was no one to count the fall.  Roberts ran in with the title belt to deck the challenger, which prompted Monica to slap him in the face before chasing him to the backstage area.  Mephisto attempted a cover and a second official ran in to count...two.  Ace came BACK out to interfere again, only to be knocked off the apron with another roaring elbow...but Mephisto got in a low blow that the referee somehow missed and rolled him up with feet on the ropes for the cheap win in 9:50.  (HEEL~!)

After Mephisto and Roberts took their leave, Brigante was fuming over the screwy decision and lashed out at the fans, saying Mephisto was right about the corruption of America and its people.  Cue "USA" chant, of course.  His words brought Barackus out to the ring, but Brigante decided that he was just leaving...pencil that one in for March 19th as well.

At the end of the show, The Landlord called one of the fans into the ring("Grandma Betty") to profess his Valentine's Day wishes toward her(despite her constantly booing him)...then he teased giving her a Rock Bottom but didn't do it.  Eep.

Anywho, that wraps up the week...I've been sick as a dog for the past few days and I'm just now getting caught up because I had to call off work tonight.

The rest of February looks like this:
-Saturday 2/18: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL (start of the Classic Title tournament)
-Sunday 2/19: Glory Pro Wrestling in Alton, IL (Matt Riddle vs. Michael Elgin)
-Thursday 2/23: National Wrasslin' League in St. Louis, MO (Davey Gibson vs. Cornell Douglass, Dez Wellston vs. Adam Ryan, and Matthew Grundy vs. Cal Stark in the St. Louis Title tournament)
-Saturday 2/25: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Alton, IL (Outtkast vs. Michael Elgin)

That's my special comment for this, the sixth 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.