WLW Special Comment

Now, as promised, a special comment about the World League Wrestling show on Saturday, June 2nd at the Race Wrestling Arena in Troy, Missouri.

DISCLAIMER:  I'm biased.  Deal with it.

As has become tradition for WLW shows, I carpooled with Ben Simon to Troy, Missouri.  Ultimo Dragon and his old manager Sonny Onoo were scheduled to appear at this show, but they cancelled a few weeks ahead of time...as it turned out, they appeared at F1RST Wrestling in Minnesota as Dragon faced Mike Quackenbush in an indie dream match.  Hope I get a chance to watch that match at some point and hope Dragon can stop by this area sometime in the future.  Despite the absence of the special guests, WLW had one of its best shows in terms of in-ring action in recent memory.

Your ring announcer was Dane Horst; your referee was Martin Kattich.

Jaden Roller and Rex Fults had a war of words to hype their lumberjack match later in the night, which turned out to be the main event of the evening.

Jack Gamble vs. Tag Team Champion Superstar Steve Fender(w/ Brandon Espinosa):  Espy was absent at last month's show, but he was more than happy to claim his championship belt from his partner.  Gamble has been showing me a lot lately, scoring an upset win over then-Heavyweight Champion Leland Race and coming very close to capturing the Jr. Heavyweight Title from Jayden Dominic Rose in a strap match.  They had a really strong opener with Espy adding his two cents' worth at times, though sometimes that distracted his own partner.  The finish saw Fender go for the swandive headbutt off the top rope(shades of his original trainer Harley Race, who was conspicuous by his absence), but Gamble rolled out of the way...after Fender crashed to the mat, Gamble caught him with an Oklahoma roll for the flash pin in 13:52!

Jayden Dominic Rose vs. Kyle Roberts for the Jr. Heavyweight Title:  These two worked really well together...with any luck, it'll turn into an ongoing series over the belt.  Hopefully they can bulk up the junior heavyweight division in the near future with the incoming trainees...we shall see.  Roberts has been impressive in his recent outings, including his handicap match with Fender & Espy (and I usually don't care for handicap matches); it's too bad we never got a full-fledged tag match with Roberts and Scott Steiner.  It didn't seem to be a good night for top-rope moves as Roberts went for his finishing frog splash only to land on the raised knees of his opponent...Rose hit a roundhouse kick, then a Kota Ibushi-style trapped-arm knee strike for the victory in 16:03.  I would have liked for the finish to be a bit dirtier to leave room for a potential rematch, but it was competitive enough that it could easily be set up in the near future.

Heavyweight Champion "The Hybrid Ace" Jon Webb vs. Tag Team Champion Brandon Espinosa(w/ Steve Fender), non-title:  I'm unsure why Webb's recent Troy matches have been of the non-title variety...Webb defeated Fender in May so it was Espy's turn to take a shot at the champ.  These two fought to a great twenty-minute draw in Dynamo Pro a few years ago.  Fender was a bit too eager to get involved and got himself ejected from ringside less than five minutes into the bout...whoops.  Espy focused on the arm after hitting a shoulderbreaker, perhaps in preparation for the cross-armbreaker.  The momentum swung back and forth, but the bell rang as the 15:00 time limit expired.  (My stopwatch said 13:32, but hey.)  Fender came back out to check on his partner, but the fans and Webb wanted five more minutes...and since all parties agreed(I assume), we did get a restart!  The action had barely resumed before Webb scored the quick pin with a victory roll in 1:09 of the restart (16:09 total)...I would have no problem with these two gentlemen locking up again in the future.

Intermission~!  Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm):  Pepsi, Mountain Dew, M&M cookies, bottle of water.

Stacey O'Brien vs. "Miss Natural" Heather Patera for the Women's Title:  This was Part MCMXVIII in the ongoing series between the two; Stacey is an eight-time champion while Miss Natural is a seven-time titleholder.  No one else even comes close to those numbers of reigns (Lucy Mendez and Amy Hennig have three each).  Hopefully the new blood of the local women's wrestling scene will have more of a presence in the future; I feel like we'll see more promotions start their own women's championships soon.  The finish saw Stacey bring the title belt into play while the official's back was turned...in a classic Eddy Guerrero ploy, she threw the belt to the challenger and dropped to the mat, making the ref think she had been hit with the championship.  That led to a DQ in 10:59 with Stacey retaining her title...of course, things are never quite settled between these two.

"The Wrestler For The People" Rex Fults vs. "The Heartthrob" Jaden Roller, lumberjack match:  The other wrestlers on the card were at ringside for this one.  Roller scored two previous victories over Rex, including one at Night Of Champions where Rex had a minor assist from "The Mouth Of The South" Jimmy Hart in disposing of manager "Can-Do" Curtis Dearling.  While Curtis seems to be gone, Roller still found ways to escape decisive defeats as he walked out on a match to get counted out in May.  As a result, we got the stipulation bout to prevent Roller from taking a walk again.

In a funny moment, Rex tried to "skin the cat" back into the ring after being thrown over the ropes...and finally pulled it off with the ringside fan favorites' assistance.  These two have a good dynamic with each other as it was the "everyman" Rex against arrogant wannabe superstar Roller.  Rex nearly won with his version of the Bossman Slam but Roller somehow survived, kicking out at two.  Roller fired back with his jumping side kick but THAT only got a near-fall.  The combustible situation on the floor finally exploded as the lumberjacks brawled, leading to Rex diving off the apron onto the pile of humanity(not to mention his opponent).  After a hard-fought battle, Rex finally picked up the win with a huge superplex in 19:35!  Nicely done...it was a fitting blowoff to their recent feud.

Post-show, myself and Ben met up with Brian Kelley and Timothy Miller at the nearby Denny's for the latest meeting of the Midwest Wrestling Illuminate(BWAHAHAHA~!).  I seem to be going a bit simpler on my post-show food choices as I went with the Grand Slam Slugger:  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and orange juice.  I'm a big fan of breakfast food in general, I have discovered...

The last two weekends of June don't have a whole lot in the immediate area...Wrestling Over Everything is in Centreville, IL this coming Sunday.  If you feel like making a road trip, Zero-One USA is in Rantoul, IL and New Breed Wrestling is in Sedalia, MO on Saturday...on Saturday the 30th, Proving Ground Pro is in Athens, IL and Cape Championship Wrestling has its monthly offering in Cape Girardeau, MO.

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