NWL Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about last Sunday's National Wrasslin' League show at the Elks Lodge in O'Fallon, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

The NWL's inaugural year of existence was an eventful one; while not everything went as planned, they managed to establish themselves as a solid brand in the Kansas City area.  One could make a lot of different arguments about their level of success on the eastern side of Missouri, but the match quality has never been in question in my book.  They had initially advertised A.C.H. for this event, but he was not in attendance on this evening; he hadn't been mentioned in the match listings so I figured that would be the case.

Your ring announcer was Sarah Rose; your referees were Michael Crase & Nick Chinn.

Mike Outlaw vs. Christian Rose:  These are two competitors who I hope to see more of in 2018.  Outlaw has returned to taking other independent bookings; he's booked for Pro Wrestling Championship Series on January 6th and perhaps we'll see him under other banners in the near future.  As for Rose, he continues to establish himself as the opposite of a "people-pleaser" in the ring...he teased a 619 only to kick the middle rope upwards into Outlaw's throat.  It took more questionable tactics to secure the victory for Rose...he spit water in Outlaw's face and rolled him up with a handful of tights in 9:31.

Buddy Shepherd & "Takedown" Javy Torres vs. "The Heartthrob" Everett Connors & Rasheed Ali:  Connors(formerly Skyler Beckett) turned on Buddy and Javy at the previous O'Fallon show, setting up this grudge match.  Connors is using the theme music left behind by Five Direction(Chippy & C-Note) and portraying himself as a future pop star with Ali as his producer.  While most of the fan favorites and rulebreakers have aligned between St. Louis and Kansas City, Buddy is far more popular around this neck of the woods; he's aligned with less savory characters like Devlin on the other side of the state.  As the referee was checking on Javy and Ali on the floor, Connors begged off from Buddy only to kick him right in the little buddies; that allowed him to get the cheap pin in 9:26.

"The Mile-High Magnum" Dak(ota) Draper vs. Leonel Howlett:  Draper has become a fan favorite in recent weeks in Kansas City; he's presumably the lesser of two evils compared to the now-nefarious General Manager Matt Jackson and his allies.  Leonel Howlett has been traveling a bit more than his cousin Marco and has been gaining momentum in singles competition, including a big win over Jimmy Jacobs the previous Friday in Overland Park, Kansas.  On that night, Draper put his Kansas City Title on the line in a Royal Rumble-style battle royal, that led to his title reign coming to an end at the hands of new titleholder Jeremy Wyatt.  Draper has always been an entertaining character and the fans had no problem in getting behind him; he showed some of his technical acumen in the early minutes of this bout to get the better of his brawling opponent.  Leonel ripped on the fans, sarcastically joking that they only cared if the wrestlers were flipping around...hey, wait a minute...  Leonel gave the former champ a run for his money on this night, but Draper finally put him away with the Mile-High Doctor Bomb in 9:13.  Draper's going to be A Thing(tm) in the very near future, no doubt.

The Besties In The World("The Miracle Worker" Davey Vega & "The Dirty Rook" Mat Fitchett) vs. Jet Royal & Anthony "Sharkbait" Gutierrez:  This was three-fourths of one of the hottest tag team rivalries of NWL in the early part of the year; Jax Royal is still on the mend from a previous knee injury.  Jet has teamed with several different people in his brother's absence, including Fuego Del Sol and Blaine Meeks(now back to his old name of Bolt Brady).  This was a battle of fan favorites, but the partisan hometown crowd sided with the Besties for the most part.  While the Besties were interested in testing themselves against the mixed martial arts competitor, Sharkbait made them think twice about going toe-to-toe with him.  One of the best countermoves of the match saw Sharkbait counter Fitchett's attempt at a Last Ride powerbomb into a triangle hold!  Vega & Fitchett were more experienced as a tag team and that may have made the difference in this one...I had seen video of their "Total Taker" finisher but hadn't seen it in person until this night.  I'll do my best to describe it in text:  Fitchett lifted Sharkbait in position for a Tombstone, then Vega boosted Royal up onto Fitchett's shoulders from the front to put him in powerbomb position.  From there, Fitchett delivered a simultaneous Last Ride powerbomb on Royal and Tombstone on Sharkbait!  I'm still deciding whether that's the best thing or the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen...at any rate, Fitchett pinned Sharkbait for the win in 13:36 after that!

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm):  Coca-Cola and bottle of water.

Thor Theriot vs. Thomas Shire:  Shire had been on the shelf for a while due to injury; he's a regular at Texas-based Anarchy Championship Wrestling and worked for St. Louis Anarchy several times.  He reminds me of Jack Swagger in both look and style, though he threw in a few nods to Antonio Cesaro on this night as well.  Theriot's NWL career has been a roller coaster ride as he was elevated by his feud with Jeremy Wyatt, but he was unable to secure championship gold on either side of the state (challenging both Dak Draper and Maverick on different occasions).  While the Kansas City audiences have seen Thor's character development, St. Louis crowds are still warming up to him.  Despite the difference in size and power, Theriot was able to lift Shire onto his shoulders for the Ragnarok(fireman's-carry double-knee gutbuster) and the pin in 9:51.

Jack Foster vs. "The Raging Bull" Maverick(w/ Drew Gold):  This was a feud that was teased at the last Casa Loma show after Maverick won the St. Louis Title, but they hadn't crossed paths since that time.  The fight quickly spilled out of the ring and Gold checked on his protege...Foster charged at Maverick with IT'S THE BIG FOOT but leveled Gold by mistake!  The match ground to a halt as Gold was assisted from the ringside area, but Maverick finally went on the attack to pick things back up.  They had a good brawl and Foster appeared to be on the verge of victory, but Thomas Shire attacked Foster to cause the disqualification in 12:01.  I wasn't aware of any connection between Maverick/Gold and Shire, but I imagine Gold is the type to recruit some backup for his main charge...he and Maverick double-teamed Foster before finally taking their leave.

"Dominican Dynamite" Marti Belle vs. Savanna Stone vs. Carolina G.E. Rodriguez:  Carolina has scored some ill-begotten wins over Marti and Savanna in recent times.  Savanna came up short against Marti at the previous NWL show in O'Fallon, so she was still in search of her first NWL win.  Carolina was seemingly outnumbered with two fan favorites in the matchup, but she had the experience to duck out of harm's way and play the two against each other.  I'm personally burned out on multi-way matches, but they've become a regular part of wrestling shows so oh well.  The finish saw Savanna engineer a collision of her two opponents and roll up Carolina for the pin in 6:54...go Savanna!  Carolina went for some post-match retribution but Marti ran her off before congratulating Savanna on her victory...

"The Stiff Robo Ginger" Gary Jay vs. "The Monarch" Jeremy Wyatt, St. Louis Title vs. Kansas City Title:  Gary captured the title from Maverick last month and this was his first defense.  As previously noted, Wyatt won a Rumble-style battle royal in Overland Park the previous Friday to end Dak Draper's reign as K.C. Champ.  With NWL openly talking about renaming the St. Louis Championship, I was honestly wondering if they'd just call the St Louis region a wash and have Wyatt unify the belts in one weekend...I guess it was short-sighted to expect a title unification with near-zero build.  With all that aside, I knew this main event would be hard-hitting and intense; they'd crossed paths before, but never with stakes this high.  Notably Michael Strider and Ace Steel were not in the house and Carolina Rodriguez was not at ringside, so Wyatt was fighting on his own.

Wyatt focused his attack on Gary's hand after an errant chop on the floor struck the ringpost...ow.  They battled a lot outside the ring, nearly resulting in a double countout that thankfully did not come to pass.  As Gary rallied near the end of the match, Thomas Shire made another appearance to chat with the the referee...but he didn't distract him quite enough to cover for Maverick storming the ring to beat down Gary.  Gary won by DQ in 18:06, but the fight was far from over as it was three-on-one against the St. Louis Champion until the Besties In The World joined the fray.  Cue Leonel Howlett to un-even the odds once again...but then cue the returning Bolt Brady to side with the good guys!

After the match, Gary talked to the fans about the renaming of the championship...everyone agreed on it becoming the "Spirit Of NWL Championship" and it would be defended under Anarchy Rules from now on.  His first defense of the newly-rechristened title was this past weekend over Ace Steel with hopefully many more to come...

NWL's return date for O'Fallon, Missouri is Friday, January 19th...I believe I have a comedy show scheduled for that evening so I may not be able to make it.  Ak.  I'm just about to wrap up the year for my wrestling show attendance, but just one more show to write about as it stands right now...

That's my special comment for this, the sixty-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.