Now, as promised, a special comment about the Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show on Saturday, September 15th at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
SICW tends to draw a solid audience to its shows, as a lot of local wrestling fans grew up on the Wrestling At The Chase format and SICW makes an effort to style its product after the old-school approach. Whatever one might think of it, it does have its perks...even with the television program in the rear-view mirror, they do a good job of establishing coherent storylines and feuds. That means a lot to keep fans tuned in to your product, with or without a TV show...you want to know how things turn out.
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Shaft, Jay King, & Nick Ridenour.
"The Pain Train" P.T. Beckham vs. "The Mountain Man" Jake Prater: I have a lot of respect for these guys; they could have easily stayed where they were in the grand scheme of things, but they chose to branch out and work in different promotions. Prater's become known for his particularly hard(and LOUD) chops...Billy McNeil can attest to that. Prater did his best to chop the big man down, but it wasn't quite enough as Prater defeated him with the Big Guy Cross-Bodyblock Of Death(Hoss-Bodyblock?) in 4:39.
"Killer" Keith Smith vs. The Big Texan: Keith had mostly been competing in tag team matches with his son Keith Jr. since his return to action, so a one-on-one bout would be a change of pace...he had a literal tall order ahead of him in the form of the masked heavyweight. Keith had the edge in experience, but trying to go strike-for-strike with Texan was an uphill battle as Texan can dish out the chops himself. Keith's best bet seemed to be to take out the legs of the big man to work toward the figure-four leglock, but Texan didn't give him much of a chance to take him down. A blind charge into the corner by Smith was met by a raised boot from Texan, who covered for the pin with feet on the ropes for illegal leverage in 6:31.
Billy McNeil vs. King Christopher Hargas(w/ Travis Cook): I'm admittedly biased when it comes to Billy, a guy who came out of the same class of wrestlers as Matt Sydal and Delirious among others. He doesn't fly as much as he once did, but he's still one of the most innovative guys you'll see. He seems capable of having entertaining matches with just about any kind of opponent and this was no exception. This bout had a good contrast between the fast-paced aerial style of McNeil and the more ground-based and methodical approach of Hargas. Billy nearly scored the upset after a middle-rope springboard Diamond Cutter and Shadows Over Hellbow(top-rope elbowdrop to the back), but Travis put Hargas' foot on the bottom rope. Travis continued to pay dividends as he distracted McNeil while he was on the top rope...the momentary diversion led to Hargas catching McNeil in mid-air and boosting him up onto his shoulders for the F-5. After that, the pinfall was academic in 10:29.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson & "Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. Mauler McDarby & "The Canadian Boss" Trystan Brady Shadeux: With Shawn Santel absent, McDarby introduced the debuting Shadeux as his substitute partner. The clash of Canadians was accented by Vincent and Shadeux both being billed as hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba. McDarby & Shadeux didn't have the same continuity as The Professionals for obvious reasons, but they worked together fairly well considering it was their first time as a team. The fan favorites powered through and Vincent pinned his compatriot Shadeux after the top-rope elbowdrop in 10:42. Afterwards, McDarby showed his displeasure with his partner's inadequacy by laying him out with his shillelagh.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Bottle of water, Pepsi, hamburger.
Keith Smith Jr. & Bobby D vs. "Superstar" Steve Fender(w/ Travis Cook), St. Louis-Style Handicap Match: This wasn't so much a handicap match as it was a mini-gauntlet match; it started with Keith Jr. vs. Fender and would become Bobby D vs. Fender if Fender defeated Keith Jr. Back in the Wrestling At The Chase days, a famous instance of this stipulation occurred when then-NWA World Champion Harley Race faced David Von Erich and his father Fritz. Fritz never had to compete as David was able to defeat Race in the non-title situation, thus earning himself a future opportunity at the gold. The Smith family(including in-law Ricky Cruz) has been at odds with Travis Cook's crew for quite some time, but on this night the younger Smith was outmatched by Fender's huge experience edge...Fender was able to defeated Keith Jr. after a swandive headbutt off the top in 2:21. That led to Bobby D vs. Fender...they had no great issue, though Bobby D did manage to eliminate Fender to win a battle royal at a previous show in Swansea. In this instance, Fender seemed to have the advantage but he had already battled with Keith Jr....Bobby D refused to stay down, which led to Fender simply throwing Bobby D over the top rope for the DQ in 9:40 total time. Of course Travis Cook proclaimed victory, though it was Bobby D who had his hand raised.
"Ironman" Ken Kasa vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde(w/ Wyldefyre): These two crossed paths in Swansea last year with Kasa scoring the victory...however, Wylde had momentum on his side after his Bruiser Brody Memorial Battle Royal win. As one of the only multi-time Classic Wrestling Champions, Kasa had been trying to move back up into title contention...but Wylde provided a unique challenge for him. Of course Wyldefyre got involved in the bout, but she did it once too often and the ref caught her shoving Kasa off the top rope...that led to her being ejected from ringside! As the official was occupied with getting Wyldefyre to the backstage area, Wylde brought in his ever-present Brody trophy...but that move backfired as Kasa caught him with a DDT onto the trophy! The official returned to the action in time to count the fall in 13:22...which didn't sit well with Wylde and his ongoing conspiracy theories...
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz vs. Attila Khan: These two have battled many times and this was another wild brawl, one which quickly spilled out of the ring with chairs coming into play. Khan ended up bleeding after Cruz superkicked a chair back into his face...Cruz put the chair to good use before they finally made it back into the ring. Tempers continued to flare and as the official tried to restore order, both combatants struck him in the heat of the moment and the bout ended in a double DQ in 7:08. The locker room emptied as wrestlers did all they could to separate the two...they finally got them to the backstage area.
Flash Flanagan vs. Rob Kowalski for the Classic Title: Kowalski pinned Flanagan in a recent tag math, leading to this championship opportunity for the big man. Kowalski also holds recent victories over Sean Vincent and former Classic Champion Gary Jackson. No matter how talented one might be, sheer size can be a difference-maker in the ring...it's difficult to go toe-to-toe with someone larger than yourself. Flash had the experience edge and he's unquestionably tough, which made this an intriguing battle. The brawl ended up on the floor where Kowalski managed to run Flanagan into the ringpost, then beat the ten-count back into the ring in 6:59 to win the match by countout (but not the title)! Understandably, Kowalski wasn't happy with the outcome and challenged Flash to defend the title against him again...in a no-DQ match at the show in Swansea on September 29th! Flanagan had no problem with that...so the matchup was set for the show a couple of weeks later!
As noted, SICW is good about keeping the storylines moving and almost always setting up at least one big match for the following show to give the fans a reason to come back...in this case, the fans would want to see Flanagan get some retribution on Kowalski in a no-DQ environment. The Swansea Firehouse shows tend to do well and I appreciate them for being close to home...heh.
The rest of the year looks like this:
-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
-Sunday 11/18: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in St. Louis, MO(South Broadway Athletic Club...wait, what?...)
-Saturday 11/24: Dynamo Pro in DeSoto, MO; MMWA in Lemay, MO
-Saturday 12/1: World League Wrestling in Troy, MO
-Sunday 12/2: Pro Wrestling Championship Series in Alton, IL; WOE in Centreville, IL
-Saturday 12/8: MMWA in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 12/15: Dynamo Pro in St. Louis, MO(FUBAR); SICW in East Carondelet, IL
-Sunday 12/16: Pro Wrestling Force in Springfield, IL
That's my special comment for this, the fifty-seventh 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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