MMWA Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance show on Saturday, June 9th at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

It was time for the MMWA's monthly offering at the beautiful and/or historic SBAC...I was able to score a table by arriving early, but eventually moved away for better viewing since I was essentially flying solo for the night.  Watching alone, watching with friends, and watching with wrestlers all provide different experiences, I have found...

Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus(Ben Simon was out of town); your referees were Shaft, Nick Ridenour, & Jay King.

Brandon Espinosa kicked off the show...after he lost to Cruiserweight Champion Da'Marius Jones at the May show, he left his boots in the ring (usually symbolic of a wrestler's retirement).  He explained that he felt like he was done at the time...he'd taken time off due to personal problems and had to cancel a lot of bookings.  He said that someone close to him had been a victim of sexual assault and the culprit was someone with whom he'd shared a locker room, so he had to take a long hard look at the business and whether he wanted to remain a part of it.  His comments were interrupted by A.J. Williams, who was carrying Espy's boots...he said that he didn't want Espy to walk away from the business until they locked up in the ring one more time.  It was unclear at this point where Espy would accept the challenge, but we would find out later in the night.

"Da Bomb" Brian James vs. Damion Cortess for the Heavyweight Title:  This match was set up by a fan vote to determine the challenger...Cortess was a somewhat surprising winner of that vote as his recent win-loss record hadn't been the best.  These two seemed to work pretty well together, as it turned out...but Deacon Cash had other ideas.  After missing out on a previous title shot due to state blood work AND not being voted into this championship opportunity, Cash made his way to ringside and argued with Commissioner Jim Harris about the situation...then jumped in the ring and speared James, getting Cortess disqualified in 8:35.  This touched off a brawl between Cortess and Cash that required several referees to disperse.

El Diablo Loco vs. "The Righteous One" Johnny Park:  Park has been throwing out open challenges in recent months...something which rarely goes well for the rulebreaking types in the wrestling world in particular.  The masked Loco hadn't had a lot of success in his short tenure in Midwest wrestling, so it seemed like Park might have a chance to reverse his recent fortunes.  However, Loco survived the assault, avoiding a corner kick to the face(Park doesn't wear boots) and getting the surprise rollup pin  in 5:56!  An irate Park beat down Loco afterwards, continuing a trend for the night...

"2.0" Da'Marius Jones(w/ A.J. Williams) vs. The Snitch for the Cruiserweight Title:  This shaped up to be an interesting match as both men are essentially rulebreakers at South Broadway, though the fans REALLY wanted to cheer the 2.0 duo and sided with them in this one.  As far as the actual match flow went, Snitch came off as the lesser of two evils for the night as Williams took his cheapshots at opportune moments.  A.J. provided a distraction at a key moment, allowing Jones to get in a low blow behind the referee's back and roll up Snitch for the pin in 8:21 with a handful of tights.  Once again, Snitch is screwed out of a title opportunity...

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm):  Pepsi and Sierra Mist.

Brandon Espinosa vs. A.J. Williams(w/ Da'Marius Jones):  These two have battled many times in the past over both the MMWA Heavyweight Title and the belt then known as the Jr. Heavyweight Title.  Espy was all business as he made his way to the ring, but the 2.0 members wanted to make light of the situation.  Jones even put on a hot dog hat and danced around to No Way Jose's music, making reference to Espy's recent appearance on Raw as part of Jose's conga line.  A.J. and Espy joined in on the dancing and mini-conga line, but Espy broke rank and took them both out with a suicide dive.  Espy had all the momentum in the world until a trip-up by Jones allowed A.J. to hit his own version of Paydirt for a near-fall.  Espy retaliated by backdropping Williams over the top rope onto his partner, then bringing him back into the ring for the brainbuster...but only getting a two-count.  A.J. managed to fight back and went for a cross-bodyblock off the top rope, but Espy rolled through and stood with Williams in his grip, then lifted him into a second brainbuster to get the win in 14:40!  It was a tremendous matchup...Espy took off his boots as he left the ring...but changed his mind and went back to pick them up before leaving.

"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Khayman(w/ Abigail):  Gary Jackson Fashion Watch(tm):  Blue jacket, white trunks.  Even though Khayman started his career with the MMWA, the two had never faced each other before this show.  Khayman targeted Jackson's arm in an attempt to set him up for his Fujiwara armbar finisher...the ground game was working, but he went to the top rope and it cost him as he missed the swanton bomb.  Jackson locked Khayman in the Texas Cloverleaf for the tapout in 8:42, scoring a hard-fought win.

"The Supreme" B.T. Daramola(w/ "The Spanish Red Devil" Ricky Rodriguez) vs. "The Caramel Bear" C.J. Shine(w/ The Snitch):  Snitch had an icepack on his groin at ringside, still hurting from the earlier low blow.  As a result, he wasn't much of an outside factor in the match and Rodriguez would have been there to hold him off anyway.  B.T. scored the win with his version of the Codebreaker in 7:33.

Moondog Rover vs. The Big Texan vs. Deacon Cash:  This was set up as a top-contender match for the Heavyweight Title, as Rover and Texan were both recent titleholders; Cash had been pushing for a championship match for months, though ironically he's DROPPED weight in recent months and was practically dwarfed by his larger opponents.  Rivals Moondog and Texan primarily focused on each other as Cash chose to bide his time on the floor and pick his spots.  One referee couldn't realistically be expected to maintain order with the combustible elements in the ring...and then Damion Cortess went after Cash to get revenge for his earlier interference.  Moondog and Rover kept on brawling in and out of the ring and the official finally threw the match out, calling for a no-contest in 6:36.  Referees and wrestlers arrived on the scene in an attempt to restore order, which took some time...the issue between Moondog and Texan is far from settled and now Cash has a problem with Cortess.

"Excalibur" Chase King vs. "The Enforcer" Jimmy D:  Broadway has brought back the tradition of putting an extra match after the advertised main event.  King recently returned to Broadway after a long absence and I am in awe of his new look, sporting longer blonde hair.  Chase scored the victory in 5:26 after a running boot to the face to wrap up the show.

Tonight I'm headed to Wrestling Over Everything in Centreville, Illinois...next weekend I'm planning to make the road trip to Proving Ground Pro in Athens, IL, hopefully carpooling with someone.  I'm slowly but surely getting caught up on these commentaries...my busy three-show weekend from last week is next on the docket.

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