By Patrick Brandmeyer
Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday’s Dynamo Pro Wrestling event at the Stratford Bar & Grill in Fenton, Missouri.
For the second year in a row, my birthday fell on a weekend so I spent the evening at a local wrestling event. Didn’t do anything particularly special for the occasion: Slept late, bought a G1 Transformer on eBay, and made a Hardee’s run for dinner. You know, like you do.
Attendance was solid as Dynamo has built a pretty good audience for the Fenton events. Energy level was all over the place, but at least the fans were into it.
Dynamo was presented with a unique scheduling conflict that wasn’t related to anything in the area; Heavyweight/Tag Champ Ricky Cruz, co-Tag Champ Brandon Espinosa, and Lucy Mendez were all in Iowa for 3XW this past weekend. That left them with neither of their reigning champions. Absent from the announced lineup were Brandon Aarons (Missouri licensing?) and Shorty Biggs (who was in Outtkast’s corner but didn’t wrestle). The original lineup had Shorty vs. Evan Morris, Jon Webb vs. Brandon Gallagher, and Aarons vs. Paco Gonzalez.
Your ring announcer was Chris Roedel (with Luke Roberts doing extra announcements), your timekeeper was Ben Simon, and your referees were Patrick Hook, Richard White, and Jay King.
Jon Webb vs. “The” Evan Morris: Morris was announced as the former prom king at his high school…heh. This was Morris’ first Dynamo appearance in several months…I’ve heard nothing about Central-States Championship Wrestling in a while, so who knows what’s going on there. Fans weren’t really into this one for some reason, but the match itself was solid enough. Webb won with a combination of super kicks (two standard, one close-range) in 6:17.
Mike Outlaw vs. “The Alternative” Brandon Gallagher: As I’ve previously said, I wish Dynamo had a secondary singles title since there are a lot of guys in the midcard with nothing to win. Gallagher is a prime example as he has been in limbo since the feud with Dan Walsh ended. Outlaw scored the victory after the Macho elbow in 6:50; he’s had a good run in his first few months of in-ring competition.
“Madman” Paco Gonzalez vs. “Ironman” Ken Kasa (w/ Travis Cook): Haven’t bought a wrestling T-shirt in a while only from the John Henric shirts UK collection, but I may pick up the new “I’m A Travis Cook Guy” shirt. Kasa has become more of a regular with Dynamo since losing SICW’s Classic Title; who knows what kind of politics were in effect in that regard (That may be fodder for a totally separate commentary, especially in light of this past weekend’s changing of the guard in Ring of Honor.). At any rate, another fine bout; Paco missed the frog splash and Kasa got the win after the John Wu Dropkick in 8:41.
Jack Gamble vs. “The New Hotness” Danny Adams: Gamble had wrestled in Fenton previously with Travis Cook as his manager, so they made sure to announce that he was no longer a “Travis Cook Guy”. Adams worked on Gamble’s leg and got the surprising tapout win with a modified Texas Cloverleaf (similar to one of Edge’s old finishers) in 7:46.
Executive Director Mark Bland made an appearance, but only to introduce special guest “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and segue into the intermission. I talked to a few fans who feel like the whole feud with Ricky Cruz may gain Ricky sympathy. Bland has arguably been acting like your standard overbearing boss and stacking the deck against the champion.
Outtkast (w/ “The Don Mega” Shorty Biggs) vs. Elvis Aliaga: This was a rematch from Glen Carbon when Outtkast got the win. Shorty came out with ‘Kast but didn’t stay at ringside; don’t know if he had Missouri licensing issues as well. Outtkast hit the Case Study but this time Aliaga got a foot on the bottom rope. Kast attempted his finisher a few more times but Elvis was able to get out of the predicaments…Aliaga finally hit the TCB (Falcon Arrow) to even the score between the two in a time of 12:32.
“Dirdey” Jake Dirden vs. “The Bosnian Warchild” Spi-Ral: I’ve been impressed by Spi-Ral so far. I don’t think Dirden has faced too many high-flyers in his career and was wondering how this match would go…I thought it played out pretty well. Don’t think the fans saw Spi-Ral as a legitimate threat to Dirden…Spi-Ral’s previous losses to Ace Hawkins and Jon Webb probably didn’t help that perception. At any rate, Dirden won with the Asiatic Spike in 11:50 and the fans started buying into Spi-Ral a bit more by the end of it.
The Bite Club (Rocket Mapache & Jackal) vs. The Black Hand Warriors (Michael Magnuson & David DeLorean)(w/ Travis Cook): Travis insulted Bobby Eaton in his pre-match promo, noting that he’s not a fan of anybody who has been associated with Jim Cornette (Remember SICW?). A friend asked if Dirden-Spi-Ral should have been the finale of the night…I’m not sure, I guess it could have been. Even now, I wonder about the decision to take the belt off Dirden, but that’s just me. I joked with Mapache before the match that they would have failed as a tag team if they hadn’t at least TRIED to get in a signature Midnight Express double-team…bwahahaha. My first suggestion was the Rocket Launcher but I threw out the Veg-O-Matic and Flapjack as well…we did get the Rocket Launcher, so kudos for that. Travis distracted referee Jay King so he wouldn’t count the pin…that brought out Eaton to dispose of him in short order. Magnuson accidentally superkicked his partner and the Bite Club members disposed of Magnuson, then Jackal and Mapache BOTH rolled up DeLorean for the pin…sure, why not? That got the win in 16:14 to make Mapache and Jackal the top contenders to the Tag Team Titles…whenever Ricky and Espy plan on gracing us with their presence again. 🙂
Dynamo cancelled their scheduled event in Glen Carbon on Friday the 19th, but added Off Broadway on Tuesday the 30th…so September will still be a busy month.
Saint Louis Wrestling 