Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's Pro Wrestling Championship Series show at the Spaulding Hall Club in Alton, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
PWCS entered its fifth season officially with this show...after Paco Gonzalez won the St. Louis Invitational Tournament, he was granted a shot at Danny Adams' Gateway Heritage Title. The team competition began with this show and also featured the promotion's answer to WWE's recent show in Saudi Arabia with the "Worst Royal Rumble". On top of that, Pierre Abernathy was in the house to address the closing of the National Wrasslin' League and the subsequent revival of St. Louis Anarchy.
Your ring announcer was Chris Kaelin; your referees were Nick Chinn, Jason Pemberton, & David Gulick.
Pierre Abernathy kicked off the show(joined by PWCS promoter Greg Jovi) and kept things fairly brief with two main points. First of all, the Gateway Heritage Title(having been a continuation of the lineage of the St. Louis Anarchy Title) would be defended on both St. Louis Anarchy and PWCS shows. Secondly, the Alton venue would have wrestling shows every month; starting with PWCS' show in June, the two promotions would alternate events in the Spaulding Hall Club to give the building a consistent wrestling presence. Things sound good so far...and the transition period would begin before the night was over.
"The Leader Of The Pack" Stephen Wolf(Submission Squad) vs. "The Wildman From The Ozarks" Alex Herzog(w/ Matt Kenway)(Blacklist): Wolf was substituting for Marko Stunt, whose absence was not explained. Wolf matched up slightly better with Herzog than Stunt would have, but Herzog's sheer size and power appeared to be too much for Wolf to overcome. Herzog dropped Wolf with a huge chokebreaker, but Wolf incredibly managed to fight back...and when Kenway tried to intervene by throwing powder, he accidentally blinded his own man! Kenway made the mistake of trying to check on his disabled protege and was blindly manhandled into a chokelift Flatliner...after that, Wolf rolled up Herzog for the pin in 6:07! (Submission Squad 1-0, Blacklist 0-1) (Of note, PWCS had a spiffy new video screen for their scoreboard to replace the manual version of the past.)
"The Dirty Rook" Mat Fitchett & Mike Outlaw(Resurgence) vs. "Lights Out" Adrian Surge & "The Professional Lowlife" Christian Rose(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters): Surge and Rose were the final two in the championship match for the Ego Busters in January, though they came up short against the Submission Squad at the time. With Blacklist turning to the Dark Side of The Force, Outlaw went with the Resurgence faction. This was one of the best matches of the night and could have easily gone either way. After a ton of close calls with the referee nearly getting caught in the crossfire, Surge surprised Fitchett with the spinebuster for the three-count in 14:05 to put the Ego Busters on the scoreboard! (Ego Busters 1-0, Resurgence 0-1)
The Worst Royal Rumble: With WWE putting on "The Greatest Royal Rumble" overseas, PWCS went the opposite route. The match consisted of fourteen entrants, largely people who were unknown or "scrubs" as far as the regular PWCS audience was concerned...I had to verify a few names afterwards since I didn't know everybody. I believe the condition was that the entrant could not have competed in the Spaulding Hall Club within the past year. One of the funnier aspects of the Rumble was the usage of incredibly unfitting theme music, usually pulled from old WWF tunes (I think Xavier Shadowz got Hillbilly Jim's "Don't Go Messin' With A Country Boy"...I know "Girls In Cars" was one of the themes as well.)
Sophie King made her St. Louis-area debut by starting at #1; Nathen Edwards(recently seen on the Glory Pro preshow in February) was #2. Edwards underestimated Sophie and was outmaneuvered as a result...this led to Sophie eliminating him relatively quickly. #3 was Johnny Park who didn't get much love from the fans on this night...#4 was "The Unholy Father" Richard Faith who was one of the biggest competitors in the match, so he was both a favorite and a big target for the other wrestlers. Jack Griffin(a Dynamo Pro trainee who was making his in-ring debut) was #5...debuting in a battle royal format can be tricky since there are so many other individuals in play, but I guess you don't have to do a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. Viktor Von Stein of the Agents Of Chaos was #6 and relieved Faith of his "largest-person-in-the-match" spot. L.V.K.(who I'd seen a bit in the past and is currently a regular for Strictly Nsane Pro Wrestling) was #7, then Xavier Shadowz was #8 to put both Agents Of Chaos in there together. Von Stein disposed of Griffin around this time. #9 was ringside cameraman Jay Beaman who got in the ring, tried to take a shot at Von Stein, and then scrambled over the top rope to eliminate himself. Har har. #10 was another newcomer to the game, Mighty Micah. The Agents double-teamed and eliminated Faith. #11 was Dyce Patterson(another entrant from SNPW), followed by the masked El Diablo Loco at #12. (The masked guy seemed oddly familiar...ah well.) The Agents worked together to get rid of Dyce, then Shadowz got rid of Loco. #13 was Kyle Hammer, recently seen in both SNPW and Outlaw Wrestling; he was once the ring announcer for St. Louis Anarchy but made his return to the building as an active competitor. It was around this time that I started losing track of eliminations, I think...aww. Shadowz and Park both went out around this point. The final entrant at #14 was the big surprise of the night: "Dirdey" Jake Dirden! He got a huge reaction and "welcome back" chant as everyone in the ring stopped what they were doing, understandably. Von Stein threw out Sophie(probably for the best as far as she was concerned), then engaged Dirden with little success...it took a gang effort to get Viktor over the top rope and out of the match. Micah managed to eliminate L.V.K. Dirden tossed Hammer. It came down to Dirden and Micah in an unlikely final two, but Dirden sent him floorward without much difficulty to win in 20:15! Dirden let everyone know that he was back in Midwest competition for good after being "asleep" for a year and a half...let the competition beware.
Mat Waterman(Submission Squad) vs. Big Chris Mac(Blacklist): Pierre Abernathy introduced Waterman as the substitute for "Rich Homie Juice" A.J. Gray, simply saying that Gray "missed his car ride" or something to that effect. Waterman made his debut fairly recently and has good size, but there was no way he could realistically match power and bulk with the massive Chris Mac. After a more competitive outing than you might expect, Mac put away the rookie with a huge spear in 8:55. (Blacklist 1-1, Submission Squad 1-1)
"The Millenial" Danny Adams(w/ Greg Jovi)(Ego Busters) vs. Paco Gonzalez(Resurgence) for the Gateway Heritage Title: The careers of these two men have been linked since the beginning; their debut in 2014 was as tag team partners(eventually referring to themselves as Alpha Class), then they faced each other in a preshow match for Ring Of Honor in Collinsville. They had hoped to capture tag team gold in the St. Louis area, but fell short in the finals of the United Glory Tag Team Title tournament to The Besties In The World(Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett). The tension boiled over and the two battled in several violent grudge matches in Glory Pro, including a dog collar match! Adams got some help from special guest referee Greg Jovi to cheat Vega out of the Gateway Heritage Title in February and this was his first title defense.
The match was as good as anticipated between two men who know each other extremely well. Danny and Paco had been Proving Ground Pro Tag Champs, but Paco hadn't yet captured singles gold (while Danny had been Gateway Heritage Champ as well as Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance Television Champion). When it looked like Paco had the match won with his fireman's-carry Michinoku Driver, Jovi pulled the referee out of the ring before the three-count; this brought out Davey Vega to chase the manager back to the dressing room area. (Due to the team negotiations, Jovi insisted on keeping an iron grip on Vega as a part of his Ego Busters stable.) With the official temporarily out of the game, Adams brought the title belt into the ring and took a wild swing, but Paco avoided it...he caught Danny with a second fireman's-carry Michinoku Driver and that was enough for the three-count in 10:37 to crown a NEWWWWW Gateway Heritage Champion! I was shocked that Adams dropped the title in his first defense, but I imagine these two are destined to do this forever... (Resurgence 1-1, Ego Busters 1-1).
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Root beer, Mello Yello, Coca-Cola, plus I went in half on some pizza with Ben. The Spaulding Hall Club has some unique options for specialty pizzas...on this night, Ben's choice was toasted ravioli pizza. Can't get too much more "St. Louis" than thin-crust pizza and toasted ravs, one would suspect.
Alpha Omega(Camaro Jackson & Kenny Alfonso) vs. "Privilege Personified" Rasheed Ali & Shane Sanders: I hadn't seen Sanders in person before; some ringsiders thought he resembled Kevin Nash and started chants to that effect. I found it funny that Alfonso used his real name(Will Lowe) when he competed under a mask in the NWL, but he uses a gimmick name without the mask. If I was a betting man, I would have predicted a win for the more estabished duo here...in hindsight, it would appear to be a good thing that I am not a gambler. Ali had a recent spot on 205 Live so he's already getting some positive exposure...even if the fans still think he resembles Pitbull. Ali got the pinfall on Alfonso in 12:36(surprising amount of time for a match featuring relative newcomers) after a variation of Sister Abigail that ended in a nasty DDT.
Everett Connors(Submission Squad) vs. Matt Kenway(Blacklist): Connors took the brunt of the assault on the Squad at the Season Four finale as Kenway turned his back on his team to side with the newly-renovated Blacklist. Kenway had to take a bit of time off for knee surgery but recently returned to action. Connors was given a pep talk at the aforementioned finale to focus on "winning the big one"...but it was not to be on this evening. Connors came out to "I Am Him", but was all business in pursuing revenge on Kenway...it turned into another strong matchup in a night full of them. In the end, Kenway didn't get fancy to win...he dropped Connors with a powerbomb and pinned him in 7:44. (Blacklist 2-1, Submission Squad 1-2)
Leonel "Hoodie" Howlett vs. Thomas Shire: Shire talked himself up before the match, but he was met with the surprise appearance of the more-traveled of the Howletts tag team. Hoodie has a tough test ahead of him at Metro Pro's comeback show in a singles match against Meng; on this night he was in the unusual position of being the fan favorite. The Howletts seem to be going back to their pre-NWL first names (Marco was Anaya), though the team gimmick is essentially the same. Shire has come a long way since returning to action in the Midwest, continuing to impress the fans in this area. We'll be watching his career with great interest, as they say. Hoodie won via uranagi in 6:15.
"The Mad King" Eddie Kingston(Resurgence) vs. "The Miracle Worker" Davey Vega(Ego Busters): While Vega was forced to remain a part of the Ego Busters stable, he was not accompanied to ringside by Greg Jovi. First saw Kingston live at CHIKARA in Indianapolis where, in the middle of a card mostly filled with wacky masked characters, he had a straightforward match with some guy named Drew Gulak. Kingston's trash-talk game is always on point and, despite his outside-the-ring friendship with Vega, he egged him on to turn up the pressure. Kingston focused his attack on the arm to potentially eliminate Vega's submission game...Vega was somehow able to hit the Brain Eater(brainbuster onto the knee) but Kingston rolled out of the ring to escape defeat. Vega kept up the pressure with a suicide dive and brought Eddie back into the ring, but Kingston stopped him in his tracks with the spinning Backfist To The Future! That left both men down for a short time, but soon they were back up and slugging it out. Vega fought his heart out, but a second spinning backfist finally put him down for three in 19:06! (Resurgence 2-1, Ego Busters 1-2) Cue Mutual Respect(tm) and that wrapped up the show...
Final scoreboard for Season Five Stage One: Resurgence/Blacklist 2-1, Ego Busters/Submission Squad 1-2. It's still very early and no one's breaking away from the pack like the Ego Busters did last year, so we've got some time to see how things play out.
This was another one of those Saturdays where I spent most of it in bed, so the pizza was about all I had to eat...I made a Taco Bell run on the way home, which tasted good but did no favors to my sleep troubles. You'd think I've have outgrown these bad decisions, but it seems as though no one truly does...
May looks like this:
-Friday 5/4: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in Glen Carbon, IL
-Saturday 5/5: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in St. Louis, MO(afternoon/Cinco De Mayo Festival); World League Wrestling in Troy, MO(evening); World Powerhouse Wrestling in Collinsville, IL
-Sunday 5/6: Glory Pro Wrestling in Collinsville, IL
-Saturday 5/12: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 5/19: Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL
-Sunday 5/20: Glory Pro/Resurgence in Swansea, IL; Wrestling Over Everything in Centreville, IL
That's my special comment for this, the twenty-fourth 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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