Now, as promised, a special comment about the Dynamo Pro Wrestling show on Friday, September 14th at the Loading Dock in Grafton, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
This evening had one of the toughest show choices I'd ever had to make. I don't think I had ever missed a St. Louis Anarchy show before this and they had a show on the same night as the Riot On The River Tournament finals. My decision was based on the fact that I could use a free-trial password for Powerbomb.tv and watch the SLA show online the following day, so I went to Dynamo live. Also, I'm a tournament mark and wanted to see how things played out.
I drove from work straight to The Loading Dock and had a bratwurst with French fries and a Coca-Cola for dinner. The view of the Mississippi River is pretty cool, even while you're just driving up the highway...just the little things you notice when on the road. Hey, there's Raging Rivers, haven't been there in a long time...
Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel; your referees were Jay King and Scott Ramsey.
Jackal & "Mr. Mustache" Ricky Rodriguez vs. "The Caramel Bear" C.J. Shine & "The Mercenary" Graham Bell: Jackal & Ricky had been riding a wave of momentum since upsetting The Agents Of Chaos in a non-title bout...but the new team of Shine & Bell was hoping to repeat their success as an unlikely duo. While they had a competitive outing against the top contenders, they didn't work together quite as well as their opponents...Rodriguez reversed an O'Connor Roll to get the pin on Bell in 10:42.
D-1 Champion Mike Outlaw vs. "Mr. Extraordinary" Benjamin Ulysses Trust, Riot On The River Tournament Semifinal(non-title): Outlaw beat Tag Champs Viktor Von Stein and Xavier Shadowz in singles competition to get to the semis; Trust defeated Camaro Jackson and then scored an upset win over Outtkast to reach this point. Would the unlikely tournament entrant be able to ride his momentum all the way to the finals? While Trust had been the definite crowd favorite in his previous two matches in Grafton, it was a bit more even on this night as Outlaw is one of the most popular competitors on the Dynamo roster. It was an even contest as both men pulled out all the stops to reach the finals...Trust came up with an anklelock out of nowhere and Outlaw seemed close to tapping, but he countered the hold into a victory roll for a close near-fall. Outlaw came up limping from the effects of the hold, but still managed to deliver his Go 2 Sleep variation and finished with the Mafia Kick in 10:50 to go to the finals!
Savanna Stone vs. Reilly MaGuire: Both were fan favorites with Savanna having about a year's edge in experience...MaGuire seemed unsure about how to approach the match, which upset Savanna as she didn't want to be taken lightly based on gender. Savanna took the fight to Reilly, driving him out of the ring and following up with a suicide dive and then a plancha off the top rope! She hit the Sliced Bread #2 but only got a two-count on her larger opponent...and MaGuire decided he needed to get serious. He countered a rana into a sitout powerbomb for a near-fall, followed Stone out of the ring with a double-stomp off the entrance ramp, then brought her back in for the finish...but the moonsault off the second rope hit nothing but mat. Savanna went to the top rope only to be met by MaGuire, but she fought out of a superplex attempt to deliver a sunset bomb from her perch...a modified version of the advanced curbstomp finally put MaGuire down for the count in 9:21!
Billy McNeil vs. The Snitch, Riot On The River Tournament Semifinal: McNeil defeated Jimmi LaFleur and C.J. Shine to reach this point...Snitch got past Shiroi Senshi and edged out a countout win over Jackal to get here. Snitch did not have his usual soliloquy for Chris Roedel on this night as he was focused on the tournament, needing two wins in one night to achieve victory. McNeil had the experience edge, but Snitch did his best to keep the high-flyer grounded...Billy's final high-risk maneuver did not pay off as Snitch got out of the way of his flying elbowdrop from the top rope. Snitch locked McNeil in a dragon sleeper, getting the tapout win in 7:34...the finals would be Mike Outlaw vs. The Snitch!
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): One Coca-Cola. My comedian friend Joe "The Animal" Lancey stopped by the event; he's helped me out quite a bit in my time doing standup and and I owe him a lot.
"The American Bully" Kyle Hammer vs. Ezra Zealous vs. Zander Allen vs. Outtkast vs. "The Neon Icon" Justin D'Air vs. Roy "The Strangler" Lewis: D'Air was making his return to the St. Louis area after an absence of several months. This was your standard scramble-style match with bodies flying everywhere, including a lot of dives to the floor. I don't think I had seen Allen before this and it's hard to evaluate a wrestler in this style of bout. It looked like Outtkast would score the win after hitting the Case Study on Lewis, but D'Air broke up the pin attempt with a 450 Splash onto both men and covered both for the win in 8:12.
"Lights Out" Adrian Surge & "The Little Blue Dragon" Tootie Lynn Ramsey vs. Heavyweight Champion "The Wind Of Destruction" Makaze & Women's Champion "The Empress Of Evil" Rahne Victoria: The champions went head-to-head with their top challengers in this mixed tag match...while the rules indicated that it would be man-vs.-man and woman-vs.-woman only, we saw a few instances where Makaze tangled with Tootie and Surge had to deal with Rahne. Tootie was able to take Makaze down with a rana, leading to Surge pinning the Heavyweight Champion with the spinebuster in 10:38! That gave the potential challengers all the momentum in the world, especially with Surge getting his shot in a lumberjack strap match at the upcoming Concordia Turners show...
D-1 Champion Mike Outlaw vs. The Snitch, Riot On The River Tournament Final(non-title): One-night tournaments often lead to overarching stories and we saw that here, as Outlaw was still limping from Benjamin Trust's anklelock earlier in the night. It didn't take long for the cagey masked man to pick out the weakness and attack the bad ankle, even pulling off Outlaw's boot to do more damage. Snitch went for the submission win with a modified Sharpshooter but Outlaw just barely made it to the ropes to force a break. Snitch hit his version of the Olympic Slam, but Outlaw somehow managed to kick out at 2 1/2. Outlaw had a surge of adrenaline as he rallied back into the match, hitting his Go 2 Sleep variant...but when he went for the Mafia Kick, Snitch avoided it and clipped the bad ankle. Snitch capitalized with a second Olympic Slam and that finally kept Outlaw down for three in 16:07, making Snitch this year's Riot On The River Tournament Champion! Snitch celebrated by providing Chris Roedel with a championship-length speech to deliver to the fans in attendance...he is overcoming the dreaded promotional conspiracy and nothing will stop him now!
I had heard that Dynamo and Anarchy actually had similar draws for the night...I don't know if either show really affected the other that much as they target different audiences of fans. I hate to make choices like that, but nowadays my budget is at about Defcon Negative-Seven so I'll have to opt for the shows that are less expensive (both in terms of ticket prices and driving distance). Gotta cut back on the impulse buying of stuff like junk food and Transformers, too...
November looks like this:
-Friday 11/2: Pro Wrestling Epic in Brownstown, IL
-Saturday 11/3: World League Wrestling in Troy, MO; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in Swansea, IL
-Sunday 11/4: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in St. Louis, MO(4 Hands Brewery)
-Saturday 11/10: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Sunday 11/11: Glory Pro Wrestling in Collinsville, IL; Wrestling Over Everything in Centreville, IL
-Friday 11/16: St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL
-Saturday 11/17: SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Saturday 11/24: DPW in DeSoto, MO; MMWA in Lemay, MO
That's my special comment for this, the fifty-sixth wrestling show I've attended in the year 2018. Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watchin Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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