NWL Quick Thoughts

Attendance was vastly improved on this night and hopefully that's a good sign as it relates to NWL building its audience.  The floor seating in particular was filled out nicely when I arrived at the venue.

Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Jason Pemberton & Michael Crase; your ring girl was Laynie Luck; your backstage interviewer was Marti Belle.

"The Five-Star Phenom" Todd Letterman vs. "Greatness" Marcellus Gaines(w/ Drew Gold), St. Louis Title Tournament Quarterfinal:  In the first round, Letterman defeated Skyler Beckett and Gaines defeated Javy Torres.  Gaines tried the duck-and-run and stick-and-move strategies in the early going, but a massive clothesline by Letterman cut him off.  Letterman was the clear crowd favorite in this match and overpowered Gaines until a distraction by Gold allowed Gaines to take advantage.  Letterman military-pressed Gaines into a Regal Roll and Gaines rolled to the floor where Gold gave him a pep talk, complete with slaps to the face.  Gaines fired up with some more varied offense, including kicks and knees followed by a double-jump springboard Superman Punch...that got him a close near-fall.  Gaines tried a shooting star press but Letterman got his knees up, then finished with the Endzone Spike (6:36).

"The Man Without Fear" Blaine Meeks vs. "The Connoisseur" Niles Plonk:  No Belvedere on this night.  Plonk did a good pre-match promo to establish himself as the bad guy; he's not a fan of Kansas City but St. Louis has NO hope.  Meeks showed his "superhero" potential with a bare-handed block of a punch, then went on to win after jumping off the second rope to hit the Comic Mischief(backcracker) (7:39).

Cal Stark vs. Christian Adonis(w/ Carolina Grizelda Esmeralda Rodriguez):  Ben Simon announced this as a triple threat match, but Adonis claimed to have laid out "Takedown" Javy Torres in the backstage area so it became a one-on-one bout.  Adonis kept telling Carolina to stay in the corner and do nothing.  As far as NWL is concerned, Stark has now gone from fan favorite(vs. Letterman) to rulebreaker(vs. Maverick) back to fan favorite(vs. Tommy Flagg) back to rulebreaker(vs. Mathew Grundy) back to fan favorite here.  Carolina tripped Stark at one point but Stark was able to turn the tide quickly...despite that, Adonis got the rollup pin with feet on the ropes (10:33).  Adonis was proud of his win but still fired Carolina as his manager afterwards.

Blood Brother Davey Gibson(w/ Mathew Grundy) vs. "The Anarchist" Arik Cannon:  The match started with SPORTSMANSHIP~!  It was a fine bout, as one might expect; Gibson won with the double-stomp off the top rope (13:52).

Blood Brother Mathew Grundy(w/ Davey Gibson) vs. "The Billion-Dollar Brother" Emmett DuBois(w/ Clayton Fox), St. Louis Title Tournament Quarterfinal:  "Super Soul" Coco Rumble had beaten Fox to advance to the second round, but DuBois filed a lawsuit to protest his removal from the tournament.  Since Rumble was injured by DuBois' powerbomb through a table on the previous show, he was unable to compete and DuBois took his place(since FOX had been eliminated from the tournament, not himself).  Grundy had defeated Cal Stark in the first round.  DuBois offered a payoff to Grundy to lie down for him, but Grundy reversed the cover into his own for a quick two-count.  DuBois hadn't had a full-length singles match in several years(his only recent official in-ring appearance was in the St. Louis Anarchy Rumble) but looked good despite his layoff.  Gibson counteracted Fox's interference at key moments and Grundy won with the flying knee strike (6:39).

In a pretty cool surprise, NWL President Major Baisden introduced Kyle O'Reilly as his latest signing for the company.  O'Reilly spoke as if his career is winding down, but he would make his NWL debut at the first Sunday show on the 26th (we now know that Davey Gibson will be his opponent).

The Buddy System(Buddy Sheperd & Skyler Beckett) vs. The Anti-Social Network(Tommy Flagg & August Marshall):  Flagg went into full attack mode in his pre-match promo, saying he and Marshall were strong and didn't need friends(other than each other).  The fans didn't have any real friends...Flagg went person by person to trash the audience, including a group of elderly Caucasian gentlemen that he referred to as "Trump's Cabinet"!  Buddy Shepherd(who appeared to have taken dancing lessons from Ernest "The Cat" Miller) came out with Beckett for a rebuttal, saying that the fans had a "Buddy" in him and that they would fight the Anti-Socials.  Buddy is VERY popular in St. Louis and the fans came up with some creative chants as a result.  Shepherd acted like he was inept in the ring, but got through the match with some advice from Beckett.  Beckett got the fall on Marshall after he and Shepherd delivered a Dudley Death Drop (8:47), but The Underground(Adam Ryan & Jackie Lee Bosch) attacked Buddy and Skyler after the bell.

"The Hanover Hooligan" Jay Lutz vs. "The Bull City Boss" Cornell Douglass(w/ Brother Castle), St. Louis Title Tournament Quarterfinal:  Lutz beat Christian Adonis in the opening round; Douglass beat Davey Gibson with a minor assist from Castle.  Douglass wasted no time in badmouthing the aforementioned "Trump's Cabinet" section.  Castle interfered at one point by powerbombing Lutz into the ringpost outside the ring, then continued to get in his cheapshots.  Lutz gave Douglass a good fight, but the match spilled out onto the entrance stage and Douglass powerbombed Lutz over the top rope and into the ring...he followed up with his version of the heart punch for the three-count (7:30).  (Douglass' variant of the move doesn't have the setup of the traditional heart punch with the bending back of the left arm.)

"The Raging Bull" Maverick vs. Dez Wellston, St. Louis Title Tournament Quarterfinal:  Maverick beat Dominick Butler to get to round two and Wellston beat Adam Ryan.  I arrived at the building a few moments into this bout (from a show at Hey Guys Comedy).  The video commentators pushed the divided crowd, but it seemed to be decidedly pro-Wellston in the building.  In fact, Maverick turned up the aggression a few minutes into the bout to establish himself as a temporary bad guy, forefully throwing Wellston into the guardrail and ringpost.  They had a really good bout and I'm glad I went out of my way to attend the show, even if I only saw this match.  Wellston had several close calls but Maverick finally edged out the win via Sure Shot(Gory Bomb) (22:01).  Douglass and Castle wasted no time in hitting the ring to attack Maverick(Douglass' semifinal opponent) and Douglass made a point to lock eyes with Wellston for a moment...the point was made that Wellston didn't come to Maverick's aid during the two-on-one attack and Douglass didn't attack Wellston either.  The Blood Brothers and Jay Lutz finally ran off Douglass and Castle and the good guys made nice to close the show.