Missouri Wrestling Revival

By Dubray Tallman
All photos from MWR Photographer Michael Van Hoogstraat

When most people think of Christmas time, they think of the white snow, Santa, wood fires, or even fresh baked ginger bread cookies and eggnog! All kinds of memories and emotions come to us each year when we think of the how we spent our time, what parties or events we attended, and who we were with in years gone by. These cherished memories are reason enough to plan to attend a great wrestling show, a Christmas wrestling show. The key to any successful event is being well prepared! Well folks I know a gang down in East Carondelet, IL that is prepared to give the fans a great time at every show.

This edition of “Dubi Meets the Fans” was a little different for myself, instead of my boyfriend in hand I brought my awesome little helper and son Tyler Tallman. The night before we made out Christmas cards and packed up prizes for fans together and talked about how the fans would come in and get a random card with a winner of a free MWR T-shirt, a whole box of candy canes, or maybe winning a box of chocolates. Brian  going to another show in Kansas City made out a list of duties to make sure I didn’t forget one step in making a great night become history.
The fans at SICW are among  the loudest fans ever…and are always pumped for a great show. I never have a hard time in finding a fan that wants a picture with a wrestler and Austin is no exception. December 10th was Austin’s B-day and he wanted Sean Vincent, but I was unsure that I was going to get this retread Canadian to come out for the youngster. A great guy and wrestler, Ricky Cruz must have over heard my conversation and wanted to help out so he volunteered to get his picture with him and his mom Mary. After doing this Ricky must have said a few words to mean Sean Vincent, because shockingly he was out and by the ring smiling with Austin and his friend Rose before you I could give them the information where to get their picture.

After doing this Ricky must have said a few words to mean Sean Vincent, because shockingly he was out and by the ring smiling with Austin and his friend Rose before you I could give them the information where to get their picture.

Rose also took her out the opportunity and got a separate shot with this evil villain.

As I was finishing up with Austin, Jake and his dad came up with the winning card for the free MWR T-shirt. I then asked Jake if I could get my picture taken with him and he was more than excited to take his picture with a reindeer…heehee

Around the corner I spotted big fans of Chris Hargas. These little guys, Grant and Evan Hoffman were cute as a button and loved having their picture taken. Also spotted by these guys I met Nicole she also was excited to get her picture with Chris as well.

As I said before SICW fans are some of the loudest fans ever and some of the most noise was coming from four of the greatest fans, Kayla, Allison, Paige, and Christian. These guys were pumped to see Ricky Cruz, they couldn’t wait for him to come out, so it was no surprise who they wanted to get their picture with.

I was so excited in being a part of this show because not only was the room going to be filled with friends, but the card was incredible and surprises of Lanny Poffo, the Honky Tonk Man, and even Santa was there.
Yes you heard right the Honky Tonk Man was there…it was so great to see him in the ring singing and dancing for the fans, I had seen him before, but never get tired of watching him perform.

Another great surprise was Lanny Poffo, brother to the late Randy Savage. I remember Randy was the first legend that I had met at Harley Race’s WLW show in 2005. He was just as nice as Lanny was to me.

I was hoping to have a moment with both HTM and Lanny for promos and we wanted to give Lanny an 8×10 hand drawn from MWR artist Rob Schamberger. Rob  has done the photo as an exclusive portrait of the Macho Man for the upcoming 2011 Missouri Wrestling Revival Yearbook book in February out of respect and remembrance for his Savage’s passing earlier this year. Lanny was also nice enough to sign another 8 X 10 that we are going to send to our friend Rob Schamberger for his collection and appreciation for his contributes for MWR as he has drawn not only the stars in the world of wrestling but the local wrestlers who is reaching for their dreams to be a household name.

Lanny then went and spent time with Herb in front of the fans and had a lot of kind words of knowledge for the crowd and  you could see that everyone was happy for him being there.

And then came out Santa, giving candy to all the good boys and girls in the crowd…” How can you not Just love Santa?”

Look for a recap of this nights in ring action in the future at MWR as MMWA-SICW continues to be red hot as the Ron Powers , Ricky Cruz feud will be one that I will be keeping my eye out on in 2012.
Till then, come see us at the matches as MWR works towards our 5 years of supporting the best pro wrestling around the country.

Love Dubz