By Patrick Brandmeyer
Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday’s Dynamo Pro Wrestling event at the Stratford Bar & Grill in Fenton, Missouri.
It was a rocky road when Dynamo started to branch out to new venues…it began with Off Broadway late last year and continued with Stratford Bar & Grill in January. Sometimes it just takes time for people to discover that there’s wrestling in town…seeing the same thing with the new Hey Guys Comedy Club in Fairview Heights. (Cheap plug!) Over time, the audience has grown for both spots and they had a solid turnout for this event.
With less than a week to promote after the past week’s Off Broadway event, very little was announced beforehand. The scheduled match between D’Arcy Dixon and Lucy Mendez didn’t happen due to Missouri licensing issues, though they did have a brief exchange in the ring. The Dynamo Pro Champion Ricky Cruz didn’t have a scheduled match and was added to the three-way dance for the Tag Team Title along with Brandon Espinosa, making it a four-way.
Your ring announcers were Chris Roedel & Luke Roberts, your timekeeper was Ben Simon, and your referees were Patrick Hook and Jay King.
Paco Gonzalez vs. Danny Adams: Have been seeing these two protégés of Michael Elgin at several shows lately, starting with the pre-show at Ring of Honor in Collinsville. They’ve usually wrestled each other, so it’s safe to say that they’re familiar with each other’s styles. Paco seemed to tweak his knee late in the match and Adams went after the injury; wasn’t sure if it was a bad injury or not, but he seemed okay on Sunday. There were a few cases of big-moves-for-two-counts.
I was a bit irked with the no contest after Jake Dirden attacked both guys at 12:05. The microphones seemed a bit off as I had trouble hearing some of the promos…the message was fairly clear in this case, though. Dirden wanted another shot at Cruz; Crystal Yount said he hadn’t been able to regain the title in his previous rematches AND she didn’t approve of Dirden messing up other people’s matches, so he had to earn another title match by beating recent rival Elvis Aliaga.
Jon Webb vs. “The Bosnian Warchild” Spi-Ral: This was Webb’s return to Dynamo after his first tour of Japan…cool for him. Webb won with a superkick combo ending in a close-range superkick at 7:23 (the only match of the night that went under ten minutes).
Enter Executive Director Mark Bland, starting a trainwreck promo segment that included Travis Cook (w/ Tag Team Champions The Black Hand Warriors), Brandon Espinosa, and Champion Ricky Cruz (w/ Lucy Mendez). I got a good laugh out of Espinosa griping to Ricky and Lucy on Tuesday about how he doesn’t speak Spanish. I’d be good with seeing Cruz-Espinosa at some point…random to throw them into the Tag Title match. Yay for wacky tag partners who hate each other!
Brandon Aarons vs. “The Alternative” Brandon Gallagher: Gallagher tried to insert himself into the promo segment, but Bland was at his wit’s end and simply blew him off. Gallagher scored two eliminations in the six-way match at Off Broadway but was pinned by Aarons, setting up this bout. The fans were a bit subdued for this one after the lengthy promo segment that preceded it. Gallagher’s been a bit directionless in recent months…he got a DQ win over Dan Walsh, but Walsh hasn’t been around as much to continue that feud. This was the second match in a row to end with a superkick of some kind; Aarons hit the cobra clutch suplex and followed up with a close-range superkick for the victory in 9:04.
Mike Outlaw vs. Jack Gamble (w/ Travis Cook): I was wondering if we’d see another superkick finish here (since that’s one of Gamble’s signature moves). Outlaw’s shown a lot of potential in his first few matches…I’ve seen most if not all of them. Spi-Ral inexplicably got involved, but that brought out Gamble’s former tag partner Jon Webb to even the sides a bit. That distraction led to Outlaw fighting out of a superplex attempt and hitting the Macho Elbow for the upset win in 11:20…nicely done.
D’Arcy Dixon vs. Lucy Mendez: D’Arcy said she wasn’t cleared to compete due to a recent concussion…she got a mixed response to her question about whether to bash Lucy’s face anyway (“YEAH!…but she’s pretty and stuff…I don’t know…”). They had a brief fight that ended with Lucy planting her with a tornado DDT (concussion~!)…D’Arcy had to be assisted to the backstage area and I imagine we’ll see them face each other for real down the line. Call it a no-contest/Sportz Entertainment Finish if you wish, though the match didn’t officially start.
Elvis Aliaga vs. “Dirdey” Jake Dirden: These two have an odd dynamic; Dirden won the first match in January, but much ado was made about the referee calling for the bell “early” when Elvis was seemingly unconscious in the Asiatic Spike. Their second match was a double DQ and their third bout saw Aliaga seemingly on the verge of victory with the TCB (Falcon Arrow) before Jeremy Wyatt interrupted things. They had a good match though it felt a bit long; both guys survived the other’s signature moves. Dirden finally kept him down with the Asiastic Spike after an extended effort…he got the tapout in 17:44(!). They shook hands after the match…Dirden looks like he’s remaining a fan favorite for now.
The Black Hand Warriors (Michael Magnuson & David DeLorean) (w/ Travis Cook) vs. Dynamo Pro Champion “The King of Chaos” Ricky Cruz & Brandon Espinosa (w/ Lucy Mendez) vs. The Bite Club (Rocket Mapache & Jackal) vs. The Bum Rush Brothers (“The Don Mega” Shorty Biggs & Outtkast) for the Tag Team Title: With the Warriors’ schedule being full with WLW events, they had gone about two months between their most recent title win and their first defense at Off Broadway this past Tuesday. Travis complained about his guys being put against multiple teams and was immediately warned by Mark Bland that he’d add MORE challengers if he wouldn’t shut up. Cruz & Espinosa had trouble getting on the same page and that was the main story of the match.
Chaos broke loose between the Bum Rush Brothers and the Cruz/Espy tandem…in the midst of it, Espinosa didn’t quite hit his jumping DDT too cleanly on Outtkast but salvaged a pinfall out of it. The tension between the tag partners finally seemed to hit a breaking point as Espinosa walked away from the ring and Cruz & Lucy followed him to the backstage area…Espinosa tagged out beforehand, so the team wasn’t eliminated via countout. That would be important later. That left the Black Hand Warriors and the upstart “Bite Club” duo…the Warriors have been fighting a lot of upstart challengers in WLW as well, it would seem. I don’t think the two teams had worked with each other; that produced a few rough spots but they got it together for the most part. The remaining challengers were the obvious underdogs and kept on fighting…finally scoring a flash pin elimination when Jackal victory-rolled DeLorean to counter a Doomsday Device attempt. Mapache & Jackal thought they had won the title, but Cruz attacked Mapache at ringside and Espinosa jumped the guardrail, planting Jackal with the jumping DDT for the final win in 21:58(!). Cruz now has double gold in Dynamo and, counting his MMWA Heavyweight Title, Espinosa holds two championships in the St. Louis area.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
Saint Louis Wrestling 