Post by Chicago Sucks! on Jan 11, 2009 17:01:42 GMT -6
From Patrick Brandmeyer --
I saw some commercials for this show during the major TV wrestling programs in the past week...good move as they had a large crowd for the event. It was one of the more energetic crowds I've seen at the Granite City venue.
Injuries and other non-appearances made an impact on the previously-announced card for this show...Future was injured at last week's LWA show in O'Fallon but appeared in a non-wrestling capacity. Rick Stone was injured(he did camera duty) and so was Jon Divosi. Not in attendance: DaCobra(scheduled to be in the Livewire Title tournament) and Darrien Sanders(scheduled to team with LONRs partner Mark Sterling against the Blackharts).
I noticed in several of the matches that there wasn't a clear face or heel side...coincidentally enough, the crowd connected best with the matches that were clear-cut in that regard(the six-man tag, for instance).
I had barely gotten in the door when they started up a "pre-show" match. I think the last time I saw Cory Pillman was on a milk carton...actually, it was a UWA show a couple of years ago where he teamed with Sly against the Ego Express. Always liked his work and it sounds like he's getting back into the mix...good to hear. Archer and Pillman pulled off a nice double tornado DDT on Cabal to take him out of the picture long enough to finish off Morbid...though I'm pretty sure Cabal was the legal man(oops). The heels attacked after the match, but Alicia(formerly FTW's Serenity) accidentally hit Morbid with a chair which led to some tense moments between the two.
The "main show" started off with a lengthy talking segment with Keny G hyping his cage match, saying he'd retire from in-ring competition if he lost. They also acknowledged Future's injury...they haven't said anything about taking the belt off him, so hopefully he won't be out for as long as initially reported.
Even in the opening segment, the face/heel lines were kinda blurred as Keny said that he respected Dingo but didn't respect the company he kept(Magic Man). Dingo's now carting around THREE belts as he won the IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Title from Jason Hades last week to go with the Heavyweight belt AND the NWA Missouri Championship.
The segment led to Mark Smart(masked jobber from the previous show) taking a beating from Future and then Kahagas. Mephisto and Keny G got into a brawl with some rough spots...ehh, it happens.
Not sure how the Livewire Title tournament will pan out with DaCobra out of the picture and Rick Stone on the shelf(originally-announced matches were Gary vs. DaCobra and Espy vs. Stone). Gary vs. SSK played out as face vs. face(which was funny to some folks in attendance that hadn't seen Kennedy work face yet) but they did well with it and had a good energetic matchup. They exchanged some pretty funny over-the-top "mutual respect" mic work after the matchup.
The women's match wasn't that great, sorry to say...I'd never seen either woman in action before so I can't speak on their prior experience. Serenity was not the woman that had competed in FTW(she was Morbid's valet earlier in the evening). It's unfortunate that the women's ranks in independent wrestling are so sparse lately, especially with locals like Jennifer Starr and Christie Summers hanging it up.
I vaguely remember the Blackharts wrestling on WCW TV a couple of times in the '90s. Mark Sterling & Brett Young tried to work heel for a while but finally settled into the face role for the night...
I wasn't sure about the identity of "Rebel Lucha"...though Brandon Espinosa protested that he was scheduled to wrestle Jeremy Wyatt("The Rebel"). Good matchup...Espy had been a face at previous HVW events, but showed more heelishness here. Lucha got Espy in a cross-armbreaker, but Espy tapped out RIGHT after the bell rang for the time limit expiring. At that moment, Brandon Aarons(who had been standing right next to me) asked me to hold his jacket and he ran in to help Espinosa double-team Lucha. The reunited Babewatch left semi-triumphant(though I don't know what the draw means for the tournament).
With Jon Divosi on the shelf, Jeff Harris subbed in the six-man tag. The Bandanna Mafia is OVAH. The Chi-Town trio was managed by Jimmy Falcon...I know nothing about this individual, but he wasn't involved in the matchup to any great extent. Vega took the extended beating for his side and Evan got the hot tag...the guy who wasn't on the original cup-winning team took the fall after big moves from all three Mafia members. Falcon got caught in the ring afterwards and took a beating from the Mafia...THEN he got a kendo stick beatdown from Kahagas as he came out for his match. Welcome to HVW, Jimmy Falcon?
Dingo vs. Kahagas was very good...the face/heel alignment in THIS one was clear but quite a few fans cheered Dingo anyway since he was the more "local" guy. Kahagas appeared to have the match won with his Ki-Krusher finisher, but Future's distraction was enough for Dingo to recover and score the win.
They took a second intermission to set up the cage and announced that it would be a mini-Wargames format...two men would start, a backstage coin toss would decide the third entrant, and then the fourth person would enter the cage. As tradition would indicate, the heels won the coin toss to get the advantage in numbers. Kris Synz and Keny G started, Mephisto entered next, and Wicked was last. I think Synz was the only one that bled...the heels double-teamed Wicked and handcuffed him to the cage at one point, but he broke the cuffs to get back into the action. Magic Man had some trouble getting his fireball to work, but finally burned Keny G with it to give Mephisto the win. The faces beat up Synz afterwards...wish Keny G would have sold the fireball a bit more than he did. Mephisto didn't bother to help his alleged partner and vowed to deal with Wicked at the next show(I THINK the next show is Saturday 3/14 but don't hold me to that)...
At any rate, it was a fun night despite a few hiccups here and there. Next week looks like MMWA-SICW in East Carondelet for me...then LWA in House Springs on the 24th.
I saw some commercials for this show during the major TV wrestling programs in the past week...good move as they had a large crowd for the event. It was one of the more energetic crowds I've seen at the Granite City venue.
Injuries and other non-appearances made an impact on the previously-announced card for this show...Future was injured at last week's LWA show in O'Fallon but appeared in a non-wrestling capacity. Rick Stone was injured(he did camera duty) and so was Jon Divosi. Not in attendance: DaCobra(scheduled to be in the Livewire Title tournament) and Darrien Sanders(scheduled to team with LONRs partner Mark Sterling against the Blackharts).
I noticed in several of the matches that there wasn't a clear face or heel side...coincidentally enough, the crowd connected best with the matches that were clear-cut in that regard(the six-man tag, for instance).
I had barely gotten in the door when they started up a "pre-show" match. I think the last time I saw Cory Pillman was on a milk carton...actually, it was a UWA show a couple of years ago where he teamed with Sly against the Ego Express. Always liked his work and it sounds like he's getting back into the mix...good to hear. Archer and Pillman pulled off a nice double tornado DDT on Cabal to take him out of the picture long enough to finish off Morbid...though I'm pretty sure Cabal was the legal man(oops). The heels attacked after the match, but Alicia(formerly FTW's Serenity) accidentally hit Morbid with a chair which led to some tense moments between the two.
The "main show" started off with a lengthy talking segment with Keny G hyping his cage match, saying he'd retire from in-ring competition if he lost. They also acknowledged Future's injury...they haven't said anything about taking the belt off him, so hopefully he won't be out for as long as initially reported.
Even in the opening segment, the face/heel lines were kinda blurred as Keny said that he respected Dingo but didn't respect the company he kept(Magic Man). Dingo's now carting around THREE belts as he won the IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Title from Jason Hades last week to go with the Heavyweight belt AND the NWA Missouri Championship.
The segment led to Mark Smart(masked jobber from the previous show) taking a beating from Future and then Kahagas. Mephisto and Keny G got into a brawl with some rough spots...ehh, it happens.
Not sure how the Livewire Title tournament will pan out with DaCobra out of the picture and Rick Stone on the shelf(originally-announced matches were Gary vs. DaCobra and Espy vs. Stone). Gary vs. SSK played out as face vs. face(which was funny to some folks in attendance that hadn't seen Kennedy work face yet) but they did well with it and had a good energetic matchup. They exchanged some pretty funny over-the-top "mutual respect" mic work after the matchup.
The women's match wasn't that great, sorry to say...I'd never seen either woman in action before so I can't speak on their prior experience. Serenity was not the woman that had competed in FTW(she was Morbid's valet earlier in the evening). It's unfortunate that the women's ranks in independent wrestling are so sparse lately, especially with locals like Jennifer Starr and Christie Summers hanging it up.
I vaguely remember the Blackharts wrestling on WCW TV a couple of times in the '90s. Mark Sterling & Brett Young tried to work heel for a while but finally settled into the face role for the night...
I wasn't sure about the identity of "Rebel Lucha"...though Brandon Espinosa protested that he was scheduled to wrestle Jeremy Wyatt("The Rebel"). Good matchup...Espy had been a face at previous HVW events, but showed more heelishness here. Lucha got Espy in a cross-armbreaker, but Espy tapped out RIGHT after the bell rang for the time limit expiring. At that moment, Brandon Aarons(who had been standing right next to me) asked me to hold his jacket and he ran in to help Espinosa double-team Lucha. The reunited Babewatch left semi-triumphant(though I don't know what the draw means for the tournament).
With Jon Divosi on the shelf, Jeff Harris subbed in the six-man tag. The Bandanna Mafia is OVAH. The Chi-Town trio was managed by Jimmy Falcon...I know nothing about this individual, but he wasn't involved in the matchup to any great extent. Vega took the extended beating for his side and Evan got the hot tag...the guy who wasn't on the original cup-winning team took the fall after big moves from all three Mafia members. Falcon got caught in the ring afterwards and took a beating from the Mafia...THEN he got a kendo stick beatdown from Kahagas as he came out for his match. Welcome to HVW, Jimmy Falcon?
Dingo vs. Kahagas was very good...the face/heel alignment in THIS one was clear but quite a few fans cheered Dingo anyway since he was the more "local" guy. Kahagas appeared to have the match won with his Ki-Krusher finisher, but Future's distraction was enough for Dingo to recover and score the win.
They took a second intermission to set up the cage and announced that it would be a mini-Wargames format...two men would start, a backstage coin toss would decide the third entrant, and then the fourth person would enter the cage. As tradition would indicate, the heels won the coin toss to get the advantage in numbers. Kris Synz and Keny G started, Mephisto entered next, and Wicked was last. I think Synz was the only one that bled...the heels double-teamed Wicked and handcuffed him to the cage at one point, but he broke the cuffs to get back into the action. Magic Man had some trouble getting his fireball to work, but finally burned Keny G with it to give Mephisto the win. The faces beat up Synz afterwards...wish Keny G would have sold the fireball a bit more than he did. Mephisto didn't bother to help his alleged partner and vowed to deal with Wicked at the next show(I THINK the next show is Saturday 3/14 but don't hold me to that)...
At any rate, it was a fun night despite a few hiccups here and there. Next week looks like MMWA-SICW in East Carondelet for me...then LWA in House Springs on the 24th.
