Now, as promised, a special comment about the Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show on Saturday, October 7th at the Fire Department Engine House #2 in Swansea, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
With three shows in the greater St. Louis area on Saturday, it was a tough decision to make. World League Wrestling was in Troy, Missouri and the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance was at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis, MO. I just didn't feel like making the hour drive on this occasion, so I went to the Swansea show which was about ten minutes away from me. It also helped that Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat was making a special guest appearance.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Jay King and Jeff Edinger.
The show started with the National Anthem; afterwards, one fan shouted out "AIN'T NOBODY KNEELING HERE!" Swell. After that, we got a ten-bell salute for Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and legendary Memphis wrestling announcer Lance Russell. Promoter Herb Simmons plugged the sponsors for the show and the fundraiser for the fire department before the action officially got underway.
Keith Smith Jr. vs. Flaming Freddie Fury: Keith Jr. is using his father's old theme music, "Back In Black" by AC/DC. This match presented an interesting situation: ONE of them had to win a singles match. After Fury's usual shenanigans, Keith Jr. picked up the win with an inverted swinging neckbreaker in 4:47.
Bobby D vs. The Big Texan: Texan was billed at 270 pounds, which is a significant drop from his days of being a 300-plus-pounder; I give the guy a ton of credit for getting in the best shape of his career. This was match MCMXVIII in the never-ending series between these two. Texan went to the second rope for his big splash but Bobby D cut him off, then hit a top-rope Frankensteiner(!). Texan overpowered D again and hit the splash off the ropes, but pulled him up at two...that rarely turns out well. Sure enough, he went to the middle turnbuckle again and missed the splash from that vantage point, leading to D hooking a three-quarter nelson cradle(Barry Horowitz!) for the upset pin in 6:38.
"Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. Ax Allwardt: These two have tangled at a few recent East Carondelet shows, wrestling to a time-limit draw in one bout. Ax pinned Vincent in a tag match at the last East Carondelet show, so Vincent was hoping to even the score here. These guys seem to work well together, from what I've seen. Alas, a decisive conclusion was not to be on this night as they brawled to a double countout in 7:11.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Caramello candy bar, and another Coke.
Herb interviewed the special guest for the evening, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. Steamboat told some interesting old-school stories, including the time that he and Jay Youngblood traveled to Japan early in their respective careers and ended up in a tag match against Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen...ouch. The inevitable Travis Cook interruption ensued, albeit with the presence of Big Daddy added to the mix. Cook acknowledged that his usual charges, Classic Champion "The Icon" Chris Hargas and "Superstar" Steve Fender, were attending to other business(Fender was at WLW)...but he had other business in mind as Big Daddy's team of Cowboy Marc Houston & Johnny Blade was scheduled to face Flash Flanagan & "Ironman" Ken Kasa in the main event. To that end, he put a "bounty" of sorts on the table for Big Daddy's guys to inflict injury on two of Hargas' top contenders. With both managers intending to be at ringside for the main event, Herb decided that Steamboat would be the special guest referee to ensure law and order...all righty then.
Heath Hatton vs. Red Daniels: Daniels is a big guy from Hatton's neck of the woods, specifically Stride Pro Wrestling in Marion, Illinois. While Hatton had the experience advantage, size and power can be tough for anyone to overcome. Hatton withstood the assault from Daniels and came back to win with the spear in 9:10.
"Big Country" Clint Poe vs. Bubba Troll: The bodyslam feud continued here as these two crossed paths during one of Troll's slam challenges; Troll held the ropes to block Poe's slam attempt during the challenge itself, but Poe managed to successfully bodyslam Troll after the challenge had concluded. Troll used a similar tactic in this match as he grabbed the top rope to prevent Poe from slamming him; Troll had no problem with showing that he could bodyslam Poe. However, his insistent tactic backfired as he went for one slam too many and Poe caught him with an inside cradle for the pin in 4:32.
Dave Vaughn vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre): Vaughn returned from a recent concussion with a bit more clarity of mind than he had previously, causing a rift between himself and his recent ally Wylde. Vaughn is going back to his more technical roots, which is a bit of a style clash with Wylde's roughhousing tactics...Vaughn went for the win with an O'Connor Roll, but Wyldefyre blatantly interfered for the disqualification in 8:00. In the ensuing chaos, Wyldefyre sprayed SOME foreign substance in Vaughn's eyes to temporarily blind him...Herb Simmons confronted the Wylde couple as they complained about their treatment, suspending them both indefinitely! He called in the fire department's mascot "Firepup" who cleared the duo out of the ring with the spray of a fire extinguisher...
Intermission numero dos~! SICW has a full month ahead as they return to East Carondelet on the 21st and Caseyville on the 28th, plus they're back in Swansea on November 18th with Cowboy Bob Orton in the house.
Flash Flanagan & "Ironman" Ken Kasa vs. Cowboy Marc Houston & Johnny Blade(w/ Travis Cook & Big Daddy), referee Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat: Steamboat called it down the middle, though the managerial presence meant that the rulebreakers still had that advantage on the outside. Houston & Blade focused on Kasa's leg after an errant high knee hit the turnbuckles...Flash tagged into the fray, but hit the ringpost shoulder-first and the opposing team focused on his previously-injured collarbone. Chaos broke loose and the good guys prevailed when Kasa rolled up Blade in 13:43...but the war was far from over. Big Daddy's duo sought to earn their bounty as Houston leveled Kasa with the LARIATOOOOO and Blade put him in the figure-four leglock. Flanagan helped out and Steamboat, finally pushed to his limit, dished out some chops on the rulebreakers! Travis Cook was dragged into the ring and Flanagan and Kasa held him for Steamboat to climb the turnbuckles and deliver his trademark cross-bodyblock! That closed out the show...woo-hoo.
I've quite a bit behind as the local wrestling scene had a full weekend in the past few days...but that's another story for another time. Tune in next time: Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.
That's my special comment for this, the fiftieth 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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