Now, as promised, a special comment about last Saturday's Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
SICW had a solid turnout for its monthly show in East Carondelet...they're building up to their annual Wrestling At The Chase anniversary show in May. So far the announced guests will be Barbara Goodish(wife of the late Bruiser Brody) and "Dr. D" David Schultz. April will be a two-show month for them with a Millstadt fundraiser on April 7th.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Jay King, Nick Ridenour, & Shaft.
Billy McNeil & "Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby): The two sides traded Facebook videos in the previous week with the Professionals questioning whether their rivals were true "heroes". McNeil & Vincent had plenty of tag team success with other partners, but they've traditionally been enemies so this partnership was a surreal one for long-time fans to witness. The Professionals isolated McNeil and targeted his arm, leading to McNeil's shoulder being injured after a single-arm DDT by Santel...the referee stopped the match in 4:46 and was prepared to award it to The Professionals due to the injury, but Vincent asked for the match to continue and said he would fight on his own. (See, that's what HEROES~! do.)
Vincent weathered the storm for several minutes after the restart, though the possibility of victory seemed remote...but McNeil returned to the ring area with his shoulder bandaged, wanting to tag into the match! Billy entered the fray and fought as well as he could with a bad shoulder...Vincent hit the Death Valley Driver on Santel but McDarby broke up the pin. The match continued and Vincent hit another DVD as McNeil went to the top rope, but the 15:00 time limit expired (call it 10:14 of the restart)...of course The Professionals felt like they should have won ten minutes earlier due to the injury, but oh well.
"The Wrestling Machine" Dave Vaughn vs. The Big Texan: These two crossed paths in the past but it's been a while...the roles have been reversed as Vaughn was the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Champion at the time and now Texan holds that title. Both guys have challenged for the SICW Classic Wrestling Title but neither has captured the gold in this promotion yet. Things weren't settled on this night as Texan pretty blatantly kicked Vaughn in the Universal Weak Point(tm), then threw him over the top rope for the DQ in 4:03. A nearby fan joked that somehow the blatant low blow wasn't cause for a disqualification but the toss out of the ring put it over the top.
Jake Prater vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre): I've been seeing Prater a bit more in recent months; this was his SICW debut. Despite being outmatched in size and power, Wylde had the advantage in experience as well as intelligence...not to mention the presence of Wyldefyre outside the ring. Prater gave Wylde a good fight, but fell to the Wyde Ride(Paydirt) in 7:16.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Bottle of water, soft pretzel, Mountain Dew.
Moondog Rover vs. Khayman: Even Ben Simon is unsure of the "correct" spelling of Khayman's name. He went by Kahyman in his previous run and his T-shirts have that spelling, but I've seen both spellings used. This was Khayman's first SICW appearance in a long time; I recall seeing him at one of the first shows I attended at the East Carondelet Community Center in 2007. His daughter Abigail was not at ringside for this one, presumably because there isn't much ringside space at these shows. Khayman had a better showing than I would have expected by targeting Moondog's leg, but the former MMWA Heavyweight Champion hit the front powerslam to win in 7:06.
Keith Smith Jr.(w/ "The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz) vs. King Christopher Hargas(w/ Travis Cook): At least Hargas and Cook deemed Keith Jr. worthy...last month, Hargas took a walk and got counted out when presented with Bobby D as an opponent. Of course Cruz and Cook have a whole lot of history. Keith Jr. dominated the early minutes of the bout, even delivering an impressive top-rope splash for a near-fall...but Hargas used his experience advantage to turn the tide. While Hargas was the smaller of the two, he showed impressive power in delivering his signature F-5...but he only got a two-count after a delayed pin cover. In the tradition of previous grappling monarchs, Hargas delivered a piledriver but pulled up Smith rather than score a potential pinfall. He hit a second piledriver, but that only got a two-and-a-half count...so Hargas went for the kill by delivering a THIRD piledriver. Once again Hargas passed on a pin attempt, opting to lock on the Crippler Crossface...while Keith Jr. wasn't the type to surrender, Ricky threw in the towel to preserve his brother-in-law's career. That ended the match via referee stoppage in 12:42...Smith had to be assisted from the ring area and an enraged Cruz challenged Hargas to a match to get his revenge! Cruz hadn't wrestled since retiring a year and a half ago, but promoter Herb Simmons made it so...the match would take place on Saturday, April 7th in Millstadt!
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Axeman Clint Poe(w/ Big Daddy): Gary Jackson Fashion Watch(tm): Green coat, lime-green singlet. If The Lumberjacks were still around, I could see Abe & Gabe taking umbrage with Poe and Marc Houston's team name. The former Classic Champion had a tough fight against his larger opponent, but he nearly got him in the Texas Cloverleaf before Big Daddy stuck his nose into things. (Noted, Big Daddy briefly managed Jackson at the time he won the SICW Title.) Poe attacked Jackson from behind and the two brawled to a double countout in 9:26...afterwards, Jackson mentioned THE RULES~! and vowed that things weren't over between himself and Big Daddy's crew.
Intermission numero dos~! Concessions were half off at this point, but they were out of cheeseburgers...aww. I settled for the aforementioned soft pretzel.
"Ironman" Ken Kasa vs. Axeman Marc Houston(w/ Big Daddy & Clint Poe) for the Classic Title: Kasa won the title from Chris Hargas in October and fended off all challengers, including a memorable best-of-three-falls bout with Hargas that went to a sixty-minute draw. He defeated Poe in February but still had the other Axeman on his agenda. The two brawled outside the ring right out of the gate...once things got back in the ring, Kasa took control until a missed kneedrop gave Houston the opening to attack the leg. Poe got involved and Houston hit the LARIATOOOOO~!, but Kasa was in the ropes and escaped defeat. Poe's second attempt at interference backfired and Kasa took out both Poe and Big Daddy before lining up for the John Wu Dropkick...but Houston sidestepped the move and drove him down to the mat with a second LARIATOOOOO~! for the shocking title win in 8:47! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a NEWWWWW SICW Classic Wrestling Champion: Marc Houston!
It was announced in the past few days that Houston will defend his title against former three-time champion Flash Flanagan on April 21st...also on that show, Sean Vincent faces King Christopher Hargas in a best-of-three-falls match. I've only heard Cruz-Hargas for April 7th in Millstadt...updates as warranted, of course.
My weekend wasn't quite over as I attended Glory Pro's Resurgence show last Sunday in Swansea, IL, but that's another story for another time...as for this weekend, Dynamo Pro Wrestling has a show tonight at Concordia Turners Gymnasium in St. Louis, MO. Tune in next time for the stories on those shows...Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel!
That's my special comment for this, the seventeenth wrestling show I've attended in the year 2018. Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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