Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's National Wrasslin' League show at the misleadingly-named Matteson Square Garden in St. Peters, Missouri.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
I haven't really covered the NWL situation on this blog: Last month, NWL President Major Baisden posted on his Facebook page out of nowhere that simply said "NWL will never run another show in St. Louis." A Friday show was abruptly cancelled and it seemed as though the St. Louis branch of the promotion was finished. He followed that up with several posts bashing the St. Louis area, which certainly got people fired up. While the St. Louis shows had struggled from a business perspective and I could understand why they would decide to cut their losses and focus on Kansas City, the manner in which this news was delivered didn't sit well with a lot of people...particularly many St. Louis wrestlers who only found out through the Facebook post.
As it turned out, the St. Louis side of the group would attempt to reboot and rebrand itself as St. Louis Anarchy on some level. Several wrestlers(though not all) would use their better-known ring names. A different venue was found where they could finally run on Saturdays and they would only run once a month instead of every two weeks.
Whether the promotion would address the fundamental problems that led to its previous struggles would remain to be seen. I addressed some of these on Twitter: Local favorites seemed to be pushed to the side in favor of "imports", particularly Maverick(who started getting Roman Reigns heat as early as the match with Dez Wellston/Mike Outlaw in the title tournament)...at least Maverick finally changed his attitude. NWL attempted to present itself as a smaller version of WWE; my view is that fans go to independent shows to see something different from what's on television, so the presentation actually hurt their appeal. Oversaturation was a big thing as well; this area has a ton of promotions as opposed to only one or two others in the greater Kansas City area. I heard a lot about ticket prices in that regard; you can see a lot of the same people at other shows for less money. While NWL replaced a similar product in Kansas City(Metro Pro Wrestling), they replaced a totally different product here(St. Louis Anarchy)...the main thing I heard was that "it's not Anarchy". This would hopefully be an attempt to change that.
Your ring announcer was Ben Simon; your referees were Sean Orleans & Michael Crase.
NWL interviewer and competitor Marti Belle welcomed the fans and hyped the show. She had a full weekend as she took part in WWE's Mae Young Classic Tournament. All things considered, the show had a good turnout; I imagine a lot of fans were there for Tommy Dreamer and the curiosity bump has historically helped NWL in the past(first show in January, first Sunday show). The mere mention of Major Baisden's name in the pre-show announcements got more boos than just about anybody on this night (yet you buy tickets to the shows he puts on...).
Skyler Beckett(w/ Buddy Shepherd) vs. "The Monarch" Jeremy Wyatt(w/ Michael Strider): I understood the Buddy System maintaining their names since Buddy is one of NWL STL's most popular characters. This was Wyatt's first visit to the St. Louis area in over a year; he nearly hung up the tights but NWL brought him back into the game. These two had a match in Kansas City as part of the now-seemingly-defunct I-70 Series(RIGHT when St. Louis was closing the gap...hmm...) with Wyatt scoring the win. They had a strong opening bout, highlighted by Beckett's somersault plancha(DIVE~!). Strider and Shepherd tangled briefly; I don't know how well Buddy would fare in a full-fledged encounter. A reversal sequence ended with Wyatt hitting the Coronation piledriver for the win in 8:54...I don't know if it was the best tone-setter to have a Kansas City guy beat a St. Louis guy in the opener, but oh well. After the match, "The Billion-Dollar Brother" Emmett DuBois sent in Clayton Fox to attack Buddy and Skyler and start a new feud.
Jack Foster vs. Brother Castle: This was my first opportunity to see Castle in a full-fledged singles bout and he fared well against the big man. Despite that, the fans delivered the rather creative chant of "Castle Can't Wrassle". The outcome seemed obvious, at least to the local fans; Foster finished with the chokeslam in 7:59. Going by the aftermatch of the previous NWL STL Title match, he's got Maverick in his sights...
Thor Theriot vs. Christian Rose: Rose was one of the competitors who went back to his regular ring name; as it turned out, the Anti-Social Network was so anti-social that it dwindled to one person (Oliver James/Jason Roberts never even debuted for NWL; August Marshall/Austin Blackburn has been on a hiatus from wrestling in recent weeks). Rose talked about how Anarchy let him be himself, even if "himself" was a terrible person...then he took a hard left turn and trashed the Anarchy fans for not supporting the promotion well enough for it to continue. Theriot was a victim of the NWL conditioning to automatically boo someone from the other city; he's a solid fan favorite in Kansas City, but was put against St. Louis fan favorite Spike(Zakk Sawyers) in his STL debut and got booed. As a result, the fans were deathly quiet for this match despite the wrestlers' best efforts. Rose countered an attempted Ragnarok(fireman's-carry double-knee gutbuster) into the No-Leaf Clover(Liontamer-style Boston crab) but Theriot reached the ropes to escape defeat. Thor fired back with a Blue Thunder Bomb(given the name, shouldn't that be a finisher for him?) for a near-fall. After a few attempts to hit the move, Rose finally delivered his version of the Sister Abigail for the win in 7:50.
Dingo vs. Michael Strider(w/ Jeremy Wyatt): Dingo returned to the ring about a month ago at Matt Cage's retirement show and also competed at an IWA Mid-South event; this was his first appearance in the St. Louis area in several years. It was also Strider's return to action in the St. Louis area; he hadn't competed in this region in a LONG time. He had stayed around the business as an authority figure in Metro Pro, then returned to the ring for one final(at the time)grudge match with Wyatt. However, a SWERVE~! ensued as the two decided they'd be more formidable as allies than as opponents. While Strider has primarily worked as Wyatt's manager in NWL, he has stepped back into the ring on occasion...he had a long-time feud with Dingo back in the days of Gateway Championship Wrestling, the Lethal Wrestling Alliance, and NWA Central States.
Wyatt cared not about the "nostalgia factor" in this bout as he got in his cheapshots early and often. Strider pulled out some moves I'd never seen him do, including a Rolling Chaos Theory...nice. He hit the Strider Spiral(inverted swinging neckbreaker) but Dingo got a foot on the bottom rope(protect your finishers!). The finish saw Strider deliver a superplex, but Dingo small-packaged him on the landing for the flash pin in 9:12! Wyatt & Strider double-teamed Dingo after the match, but Jack Foster made the save...Dingo called Strider an egg-sucking dog(OLDSCHOOL) and a tag match was set up for the next show on August 26th!
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Two Coca-Colas.
Roscoe Eat Lisa("The Big Mustache On Campus" Mikey McFinnegan & "Zesty" Zakk Sawyers) vs. "Captain K.C." Blaine Meeks & Jet Royal: With Jax on the shelf with an injury, Meeks and Jet have been joining forces in recent weeks. The STL/KC dynamic made this odd as they're both fan favorites in Kansas City, but the Royal Blood are rulebreakers in St. Louis so Meeks and Jet didn't get along as well as they normally had. On the other side, R.E.L. are back to their regular names after a mostly unsuccessful stint as Party Crashers Boulder & Spike. I feel like NWL expected each city's fans to follow the other city's product via YouTube, but I don't think that's been the case...as a result, a lot of K.C. guys have gone unrecognized. (Theriot had never competed in this area so that's understandable, but did Meeks change THAT much from his days as Bolt Brady in St. Louis Anarchy?) Meeks tried to maintain his fan favorite character in St. Louis, but got booed anyway for being from Kansas City since that's how the fans were conditioned to respond. In a nice touch, the more established team got the win; McFinnegan got Meeks in position for a Code Red, then Zakk delivered a Stone Cold Stunner on Meeks to catapult him backwards into the Code Red...Mikey got the pin with that in 9:39.
Kansas City Champion "The Mile-High Magnum" Dak(ota) Draper vs. Mike Outlaw, non-title: Dez Wellston did his best to remain a fan favorite across enemy lines, even garnering some reluctant fan support when matched up with Kansas City rulebreakers like Draper. However, he gradually grew bitter in that territory over the fans' insistent boos...he went totally into rulebreaker mode at a recent NWL KC show by helping The Besties In The World(Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett) win a feature bout against Blaine Meeks & Jet Royal. (For the record, Vega & Fitchett were competing at All-American Wrestling on this night...this was covered by Major Baisden suspending the pair via pre-recorded video.)
Outlaw remained a solid fan favorite in St. Louis and kept his previous NWL theme music, though his entrance video had been altered to fit his ring name. Draper nearly walked out on the match, but Outlaw cut him off with a somersault plancha...Outlaw went to the top rope for the finish, but Leonel Howlett made a surprise appearance and hit Outlaw behind the referee's back. That was enough for Draper to finish with the Mile-High Doctor Bomb in 12:40...but Leonel had something to say. The Howletts hadn't appeared in St. Louis and he felt like he might like any group that associated itself with "Anarchy", but he hadn't seen anything of the sort on this night (...he wasn't wrong...). At any rate, it looks like we'll be seeing the Howletts in our neck of the woods...Vega & Fitchett knew not what they did when they interfered in their K.C. ladder match with the Royal Blood, causing the Howletts to regain their employment with the company.
"The Innovator Of Violence" Tommy Dreamer vs. "The Bull City Boss" Cornell Douglass, extreme-rules match: Dreamer used a cover of Man In The Box that I presume he uses at his House Of Hardcore shows. Marti Belle was the special guest ring announcer for this match, but Douglass protested that he had never agreed to an extreme-rules bout (to be fair, I didn't think that stipulation had been announced prior to the show). Dreamer joked that he would just have a "boring" regular wrestling match instead...they tried that for a bit but it didn't take long for the fight to get out of hand.
Dreamer just happened to have a garbage can full of weapons on hand, of course. Douglass is a proficient brawler in his own right and held his own against the hardcore legend...but Dreamer reversed him into a chair in the corner and hit his signature DDT. That brought out Castle for a distraction...Marti pulled him off the ring apron and then ducked out of the way of his attack, causing him to hit the ringpost! However, the chaos led to Douglass delivering a low blow, then throwing Dreamer into the chair in the corner...he then hit his own DDT and got the win in 12:01. Dreamer got some post-match retribution by taking out Castle with the Death Valley Driver.
After that, Dreamer talked about bonding with Marti since they were both trained by "The Unpredictable" Johnny Rodz...she paid her dues across the country, moved to the Midwest to be a part of the NWL, and just recently took part in WWE's Mae Young Classic Tournament! (I got my picture taken with Marti after the show...she's very cool in person.) While NWL has had women's matches in Kansas City, they have yet to do any in St. Louis...hopefully that'll happen in the near future.
"The Raging Bull" Maverick(w/ Drew Gold) vs. "The Stiff Robo Ginger" Gary Jay for the St. Louis Title: Gary had an instrumental soundalike of "Joker & The Thief" by Wolfmother(his usual indie theme music), which was a nice touch. Despite his past association with St. Louis Anarchy, Drew Gold maintained his NWL name as he had helped Maverick win the title at the previous NWL event. I'd felt for a while that Maverick was better in the rulebreaking role, which he had already used at Kansas City shows. Maverick's promos leading up to the match were rife with real-life subtext, saying Gary didn't like his "Jay Lutz" character but it should have worked since he LOOKS like a drunk homeless guy. (This from a guy who used to be called "Moonshine Mantell", for the record.) He also made light of Gary's lengthy STL Anarchy Title reign, saying the promotion only ran a few times per year so it wasn't that impressive.
Anywho, wrestling match. Maverick took control after a spinebuster into the ring apron(#HARDESTPARTOFTHERING) and focused on the ribs. Gary made the comeback but the referee was knocked down...uh-oh. Maverick hit an elevated neckbreaker but there was no one to make the count. Gold passed in the title belt and Maverick decked Gary with it, making the cover as the official revived to count...two. Gary came back with his flying Flatliner off the second turnbuckle, but Gold put his client's foot on the bottom rope to save him. Gary kept rolling and went to the top rope to finish off Maverick, but Dak Draper ran out and pushed him to the mat...right in front of the ref, so that was a DQ in 21:29. Cue chaos(or, dare I say, "anarchy") as Mike Outlaw, Leonel Howlett, and Roscoe Eat Lisa joined the fray...the St. Louis crew stood tall as the Kansas City trio retreated. Of course Gary did not win the title on the disqualification, but he challenged Maverick & Draper to a tag match at the August show. He had a few good choices for a tag team partner in the ring, but he decided to go with a closer Anarchy compatriot in Davey Vega!
The post-show party took place at Shamrock's Pub & Grill a bit down I-70...I recognized the plaza where the restaurant was located as it was once the home of The Comedy Forum. Jeff Milovich rode with me as several NWL wrestlers made their way to the venue...it was good to talk to Dingo again for the first time in a while. I also chatted with Buddy Shepherd about comedy goings-on...and I witnessed a chess match between Ben Simon and Mike Outlaw. For perspective: Ben works at the St. Louis Chess Club. Outlaw had to be educated on how pawns work. (I'm extremely rusty at chess, but I'd like to have a game with Ben one of these days to see how it goes.)
As far as the overall show went: Anyone who went to the show expecting a full-fledged "Anarchy" show would have been disappointed. I liked NWL's product before and I liked this show, but it wasn't much of a change in the product aside from the venue and a few of the names. Next month will tell the tale of how effective the revamping has been, especially without Dreamer on the show to pull in the more casual fans.
Anywho, I'm getting this done on Friday night so the weekend is already ahead. Saturday has Dynamo Pro Wrestling at Concordia Turners Gymnasium in St. Louis, MO. Sunday has the final Pro Wrestling Resurgence show at the Improvement Hall in Swansea, IL with several Glory Pro competitors in the house. It should be a banner weekend...
Upcoming weeks look like this:
-Saturday 7/29: World Powerhouse Wrestling in Collinsville, IL
-Friday 8/4: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Grafton, IL
-Saturday 8/5: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in Hillsdale, MO(afternoon); World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Sunday 8/6: Wrestling Over Everything in Centreville, IL
-Saturday 8/12: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 8/19: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Sunday 8/20: Glory Pro Wrestling in Alton, IL
-Saturday 8/26: National Wrasslin' League in St. Peters, MO
-Sunday 8/27: Pro Wrestling Championship Series in Alton, IL
That's my special comment for this, the thirty-fourth 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.
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