Now, as promised, a special comment about the Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show from Saturday, October 20th at the Community Center in East Carondelet, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
I honestly wish I could get to SICW more often than I do. Their all-around product is very coherent as it relates to storylines and such. They have two definite "big shows" on the calendar and build to them well: The May show which celebrates the anniversary of Wrestling At The Chase and the year-ending event in December. Those two shows give the booking a pair of focal points where the biggest angles are usually paid off. Several new faces have made things interesting in SICW as of late...
Your ring announcer was Drew Abbenhaus; your referees were Jay King, Nick Ridenour, & Shaft.
The show started with a ten-bell salute for old-school grappler Don Leo Jonathan as well as "Dirty" Dick Slater. After that, we saw a meeting of the promotional minds as Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance promoter Tony Casta, SICW promoter Herb Simmons, and New Breed Wrestling promoter Scott Zei introduced the Multi-State Tag Team Title belts.
"The Pain Train" P.T. Beckham & "War" Chris Riot vs. Guerrilla Warfare(The Big Texan & Waco): Speaking of new faces, the facepainted War made his SICW debut as Beckham's tag partner against the established duo of Texan & Waco. As former MMWA Tag Team Champions, Guerrilla Warfare were lined up to be in the hunt for the Multi-State tag belts and needed a win to gain momentum. Of course, they weren't above using some underhanded tactics...Beckham & War did well for themselves, but Waco loaded his mask and put P.T. down with a running headbutt. That earned Waco the questionable pinfall in 7:44.
Travis Cook spoke his mind to the fans, reinforcing the stipulations of the main event: Classic Champion Flash Flanagan would get five minutes in the ring with him if he defeated "Superstar" Steve Fender(with no disqualifications!). Of course that wouldn't happen because Fender would capture HIS(Travis') championship...but even if that unlikely situation occurred, Travis claimed he was fully capable of holding his own in a fight with Flanagan. Suuuuure.
Billy McNeil vs. "The Canadian Boss" Trystan Brady Shadeux: This was a rematch from the September show in Swansea where McNeil got the win, but Shadeux had a very competitive outing. Shadeux had another strong showing here and seems to have earned himself a regular spot on the roster. While he gave his more experienced opponent a good fight, it wasn't quite enough to earn him the victory; McNeil won after a top-rope elbowdrop to the back in 12:26.
"Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One" Gary Jackson, Moondog Rover, & "Killer" Keith Smith vs. "Volatile" Curtis Wylde & The Professionals(Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby)(w/ Wyldefyre): There was a lot of bad blood in the ring as Gary and Moondog both had previous issues with Wylde. The trio of veterans was up against three ambitious competitors; Santel & McDarby were hoping to gain momentum for their pursuit of the Multi-State Tag Titles while Wylde was hoping to continue his run of success that started with the Bruiser Brody Memorial Battle Royal win in May. Jackson & Smith had been a tag team in the past, so they had plenty of continuity to counteract that of The Professionals. Rover's tag team experience was with his fellow Moondogs in promotions like the United States Wrestling Association, where he held the Tag Team Titles with Moondog Spot in 1996. Gary Jackson Fashion Watch(tm): Shiny shirt and pink trunks(for Breast Cancer Awareness Month). Things broke down as all six men brawled...with the referee's attention elsewhere, Wyldefyre hit Smith with the Brody trophy and Curtis capitalized to score the quick pin in 13:36.
Intermission~! Official Ben Simon Concession Count(tm): Bottle of water. My finances were hitting Defcon-1 around this time so I was trying to minimize my "extra" food intake.
Bobby D vs. "The Mountain Man" Jake Prater: Pretty much the entire card had been announced on Facebook ahead of time, which was nice. 2018 has been a breakout year for Prater in the St. Louis area and I could see him becoming one of the top heavyweight competitors in even more promotions in the very near future. On this night, he seemed to be on his way to a big win as he set up for a belly-to-back suplex off the top rope...but Bobby D's experience won out as he shifted his weight, landing on top for the three-count in 6:57.
"The King Of Chaos" Ricky Cruz vs. King Christopher Hargas(w/ Travis Cook): Only one king would reign supreme in this battle of former SICW Classic Champions. I wonder if we'll eventually get a storyline where someone points out that while "uncrowned champion" Hargas got a crown of questionable value, another member of Cook's stable(Steve Fender) got an actual title shot? Hargas had scored key wins in recent months over Billy McNeil and Sean Vincent, but a victory over a former titleholder would speak volumes for his credibility. Of course Ricky Cruz came to fight as well, hoping to take the Travis Cook Organization down a peg in his quest to get the whole lot of them in a cage match. As is often the case with Cook and company, subterfuge played a huge role in the match outcome...Hargas blatantly brought a chair into the ring, but the referee took it away from him. That turned out to be a feint as Hargas brought out brass knuckles and decked Cruz behind the referee's back, scoring the tainted victory in 8:36. When Cruz recovered, he immediately attacked Hargas but was jumped by The Professionals, making it a three-on-one situation...Ken Kasa and Keith Smith hit the ring to even the odds, causing Cook's crew to retreat. Cruz repeated his challenge for the cage match, but Cook had no interest in the match offer and turned it down.
"Ironman" Ken Kasa & "Your Canadian Hero" Sean Vincent vs. Attila Khan & Rob Kowalski: Former two-time champion Kasa and Vincent had a tough task ahead of them against two monstrous competitors who cared very little about the rules. It took a total team effort on the part of the two fan favorites to chop down their larger opponents...after several tries, Kasa managed to bodyslam the massive Khan. Kasa made the pin cover and Kowalski tried to break it up with a big splash, but Kasa moved out of the way and the 400-pounder landed on his partner by mistake. Vincent took out Kowalski with a dropkick off the top rope and Kasa jumped back onto the cover to pin Khan in 11:37!
Flash Flanagan vs. "Superstar" Steve Fender(w/ Travis Cook) for the Classic Title: On the heels of Fender's battle royal win in Swansea (thanks to a fireball thrown in the face of Bobby D), Flanagan demanded to get Fender in the ring; Cook only agreed to the match if the title was on the line. The four-time champion had held the title since defeating "Cowboy" Marc Houston for the belt in a cage match in May. The previous one-on-one meeting between these two in February ended in controversy as Flanagan used the ropes to pin Fender (after Fender had attempted to do the same to him).
The battle of veterans saw each man go deep into his bag of tricks, but outside forces would be the deciding factor in the outcome. Cook attempted to get involved but was accidentally knocked off the apron by Fender, allowing Flash to roll up Fender for a close near-fall. In the ensuing chaos, the referee was accidentally knocked down; Fender took control, but missed the swandive headbutt from the top rope. Flanagan springboarded off the middle rope with a legdrop and covered...a second official ran down to make the count, but Travis yanked him out of the ring. Flash went after Cook and got his hands on him, but Chris Hargas ran out and nailed Flash with his own kendo stick! Fender covered with Travis providing illegal leverage from the floor and the original referee revived to make the three-count in 11:51...ladies and gentlemen, we had a NEWWWWW SICW Classic Wrestling Champion! Flanagan's 154-day reign was over...and the belt was back in the camp of Travis Cook.
I've had some free time to work on these commentaries...at this rate, I'll wrap up 2018 by next summer. -_-
January looks like this:
-Saturday 1/5: Strictly Nsane Pro Wrestling in Crossville, IL
-Sunday 1/6: Glory Pro Wrestling in Collinsville, IL
-Friday 1/11: St. Louis Anarchy in Alton, IL
-Saturday 1/12: Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance in St. Louis, MO
-Saturday 1/19: Dynamo Pro Wrestling in DeSoto, MO; World League Wrestling in Troy, MO; Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling in East Carondelet, IL
-Saturday 1/26: Dynamo Pro in St. Louis, MO(Concordia Turners); SICW in Cahokia, IL
That's my special comment for this, the sixty-sixth 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment