Now, as promised, a special comment about the Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show on Saturday, July 21st at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
Attendance was a bit lower than usual on this night, though WWE's St. Louis house show may have had something to do with that. (Since the Kiel/Savvis/Scottrade/Enterprise Center is undergoing renovations, the event was at the nearby Chaifetz Arena.) Despite that, the fans were into the action...I often say that I've seen big crowds that barely cared about the shows and I've seen small crowds that were a lot of fun. (That applies to both wrestling and comedy.) I was deciding between shows until about a week beforehand, but once the originally scheduled A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura match was taken off the table, I opted for SICW for the evening.
Sometimes I don't become familiar with a wrestler until later in that person's career...such was the case with Kevin Sullivan, who had a great deal of history in the business prior to my first viewing of him in WCW in the '90s. His Satan-worshiping character was particularly edgy for the time period (when EVERYONE wasn't trying to be edgy). By the time I saw him, he was part of a more cartoonishly-evil group: The Dungeon Of Doom. He made a handful of other appearances on televised wrestling products, including a handful of stops in Ring Of Honor as part of the Steve Corino/B.J. Whitmer feud. He's also known for his WCW feud with Chris Benoit, something which led to a storyline split with his wife Nancy(aka Woman) that became a real-life split. Sullivan was in the house as the advisor of Kahagas, who was scheduled to face Ricky Cruz...but how did manager Travis Cook figure into things?
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Nick Ridenour, Shaft, & Jay King.
Promoter Herb Simmons interviewed Kevin Sullivan to start the show...Sullivan acknowledged his past in the area and was glad to be back in the St. Louis region. Herb asked him about any collusion or payoffs relating to Travis Cook, but Sullivan dodged the question...hmm.
"Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. Jake Prater: Vincent had the experience and agility edge in this opener while Prater had the size and power advantage. Vincent has fought larger opponents on plenty of occasions, but it's always been an uphill battle...such was the case here as well. Prater got Vincent down in the corner and set up for a Vader Bomb(R.I.P. Big Van), but Vincent rolled out of the way. Vincent somehow managed to get Prater up on his shoulders for a Samoan Drop, then followed up with a moonsault off the middle turnbuckles for a near-fall. Vincent didn't let up, going to the top rope for his old signature "Sexy Elbow" and scoring the win in 5:15.
"The Pain Train" P.T. Beckham vs. Mauler McDarby: Beckham reportedly made a good impression at Kevin Sullivan's seminar earlier in the day and was rewarded with a spot on the show. Beckham got in a good run of offense on the veteran tag team competitor, but McDarby had some underhanded tactics up his sleeve. Beckham attempted to back-suplex McDarby from the apron back into the ring, but McDarby hit him in mid-air with brass knuckles and fell on top for the pin in 3:43.
Billy McNeil vs. Attila Khan(w/ Big Daddy): The Mongolian menace seems to have new management, having previously been advised by Travis Cook. Billy started the match by hiding outside the entrance door, but he had to get in the ring eventually...it was a tough fight against the much larger Khan, especially when he brought out his trademark international object of doom. Khan's affinity for weaponry nearly backfired as McNeil superkicked a chair back into his face...he gave Khan one of the best fights he'd had in a long time, but Khan emerged victorious with the inverted DDT in 9:48.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Pepsi, Snickers, cheeseburger, Sprite.
Keith Smith & Keith Smith Jr. vs. Guerrilla Warfare(The Big Texan & Waco): Two established tag teams did battle here...Texan and Waco held the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance Tag Team Titles several years ago. I haven't heard any updates on the proposed tag belts that were mentioned a few shows ago; they said they would be defended in MMWA, SICW, New Breed Wrestling, and USA Championship Wrestling. At any rate, these guys had a solid tag bout...the Smiths both attempted to work up to their signature figure-four leglocks, with Keith Jr. finally locking Waco in the hold for the submission in 10:44.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson vs. Kowalski(w/ Big Daddy): The Gary Jackson Fashion Watch(tm) saw The Night Train in a brown robe with red and white trunks. Kowalsky had the utter gall and audacity to attack Gary as he was in the middle of running down THE RULES~!...the cad. Gary had difficulty dealing with an opponent of Kowalski's size; he was unable to bodyslam the big man or hook him in the Texas Cloverleaf. Normally Gary finds a way to beat larger opponents like this, but not on this night; in a shocker, Kowalski defeated the local legend cleanly with a big splash off the second rope in 8:00! The big man made a huge statement here and I could see him moving into title contention in the near future.
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz vs. "The Tokyo Monster" Kahagas(w/ Kevin Sullivan & Travis Cook): Given the boatloads of bad blood between Ricky and the Travis Cook Organization, it was no surprise that Travis would bring out the big guns in an attempt to send Cruz back into retirement. While Sullivan was coy about the exact arrangement between himself and Cook earlier in the show, Travis loudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen that this was "money well spent". Of course my question about the Sullivan/Cook alliance would be "who's more evil?", but that's just me. As is often the case, the priorities of the rulebreakers tend to put damage-dealing in front of actually winning the match...Sullivan passed in his infamous spike, which Kahagas used to attack Cruz pretty blatantly. That led to the disqualification in 7:54, but things weren't over yet as Kahagas continued his assault on Cruz and even spiked referee Jay King as well. Keith Smith hit the ring to defend his son-in-law, but he was on the receiving end of the spike and was left a bloody mess...that brought out Keith Jr. and the bad guys retreated upon seeing the numbers even out.
Intermission numero dos~! The next East Carondelet show will take place on September 18th; Herb Simmons announced that Ricky Cruz would team up with the Smith family on that show against Superstar Steve Fender, King Christopher Hargas, and...Travis Cook himself!
Classic Championship Gauntlet Match: This five-man bout could best be described as a mini-Aztec Warfare: Two men started, new participants(determined by random draw) entered at intervals(five minutes in this case), and eliminations could only occur by pinfall or submission (thus no countouts or DQs). The bout started with Superstar Steve Fender(w/ Travis Cook) and "Ironman" Ken Kasa, two men who are very familiar with each other. Fender and Kasa fought evenly for the first five minutes of the bout before "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre) made his entrance, taking his sweet time in entering the line of fire. Wylde and Fender briefly worked together against Kasa but that alliance didn't last long...even though the match format meant that no one had to break up pinfalls, a combination of ego and force of habit meant that competitors often did it anyway.
Classic Champion Flash Flanagan entered at the ten-minute mark, having no qualms about bringing his signature kendo stick into play(no-DQ!)...after cleaning house with the weapon and wiping out Wylde with a shot to the head, Kasa scored a pinfall in 10:27. Wylde's foot was on the bottom rope, but the official missed it...touching off a major temper tantrum on the part of Wylde as he loudly claimed that the referee was in Herb Simmons' pocket. In the ensuing chaos, Fender superkicked and pinned Kasa in 10:47; Kasa got HIS foot on the bottom rope, but Wylde swatted it down and the elimination counted. That left Flanagan and Fender to battle it out as Cook agonized over the clock, REALLY wanting his other charge to un-even the odds in their favor.
Finally King Christopher Hargas hit the ring at the fifteen-minute mark, leaving the titleholder in a two-on-one situation against Cook's stable. The four-time champion withstood the assault for several minutes, finally getting enough separation to eliminate Hargas in 20:26 after a middle-rope springboard legdrop. Cook ran interference and the distraction led to Fender scoring a close near-fall with a rollup and handful of tights. Of course Flanagan is not above bending the rules himself, so he schoolboyed Fender with his own handful of tights to win in 22:01, retaining his title! Travis Cook and company flipped their lids and Herb reminded them about their six-man tag match in September...and that wrapped up the show!
SICW was just the start of a busy weekend as Glory Pro Wrestling had a show the following day...of course that's another story for another time. I'll get caught up eventually...seriously...promise...would I lie? Don't answer that.
Upcoming shows:
-Saturday 8/11: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Sunday 8/12: Wrestling Over Everything in Centreville, IL
-Friday 8/17: Dynamo Pro in St. Louis, MO(Concordia Turners)
-Saturday 8/18: World League Wrestling in Troy, MO; SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Friday 8/24: St. Louis Anarchy/Pro Wrestling Championship Series in Alton, IL
-Saturday 8/25: Dynamo Pro in Glen Carbon, IL; SICW in Swansea, IL
-Sunday 8/26: Proving Ground Pro in Petersburg, IL
That's my special comment for this, the forty-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.
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