By Patrick Brandmeyer
Photos Brian Kelley

Promoter Herb Simmons started the show by acknowledging the recent passings of Gypsy Joe and Muhammad Ali. Gypsy Joe was a bit before my time, but he had in-ring wars in his later years against such opponents as New Jack and Necro Butcher. Quite a few of the wilder rasslin stories in history involve the name of Gypsy Joe, to say the least. Herb also noted that it was the birthday of the late Bruiser Brody, segueing into the ten-bell salute.

“Your Canadian Hero” Sean Vincent vs. Britton Tucker: Tucker is not well-liked in East Carondelet; one female fan was particularly irate about Tucker’s mere presence and Tucker promised to take her out to Olive Garden after the show. Bwahahaha.

They had a solid opener and Vincent appeared to be on the verge of winning with his Mapleleaf Leglock, but “Unstable” Dave Vaughn entered the ring and blatantly attacked TUCKER…thus getting Vincent disqualified in 7:44. Har har. Afterwards, Vincent reaffirmed that Vaughn would not turn him back into a “villain” as he insisted he would.

“The Fury” Jason Vaughn vs. “The Incredible” Matt Kenway (Look At Him): We have two guys in SICW with the last name of Vaughn…cue the MARKET CONFUSION~! Kenway was substituting for Ax Allwardt(Vaughn’s scheduled opponent).

Vaughn’s two young children were in attendance and were VERY vocal in their support of their father. Kenway did a good job in the rulebreaking role and targeted Vaughn’s arm, but Vaughn made El Big Comeback and got the figure-four leglock out of nowhere for the submission in 6:08.

Bobby D vs. “Unstable” Dave Vaughn: Vaughn’s transition into Heath Ledger Joker continues with the similar hair and the eye makeup. Vaughn controlled most of the matchup, but had trouble putting D away and went for a chair.

That brought out Vincent to confiscate the weapon, leading to Bobby D getting the rollup pin on a distracted Vaughn in 5:14. Vaughn didn’t seem too upset about the loss, laughing about how Vincent’s interference proved that he truly was reverting to his old ways…more on this as it develops.

Flaming Freddie Fury vs. Purple Passion: WHEN EFFEMINATE MASKED WRESTLERS COLLIDE~! The fans in attendance had no idea what to make of this encounter, though I heard several people call out “This isn’t wrestling!”

The two ended up falling into 69 position on the ring apron and both were counted out in 5:43. The two literally left arm-in-arm.

“Dead Sexy” Daniel Gunner vs. Brandon Espinosa(w/ Travis Cook): . Travis started out by loudly complaining about the previous match, asking if Vince Russo had booked it. Espinosa followed suit, continuing his mindset that he’s above everyone else in the promotion by insulting several members of the locker room…that included his scheduled opponent for the evening.

This was a solid matchup with Gunner doing better than I would have expected. At any rate, Espy got the cross-armbreaker out of nowhere for the tapout in 7:18.

Big Jim Hoffarth vs. Bubba Troll(w/ Big Daddy): Hoffarth won last month’s Bruiser Brody Memorial Battle Royal and Troll was the last man eliminated, so Troll obviously wanted some payback in this battle of super heavyweights. I jokingly throw around “#ClubbingForearms” at times like this, but it’s not like we’re gonna see a lucha-style match out of these guys. I’m often told that casual fans would rather see a “fight” than a “wrestling match”, at any rate.

In a slight surprise, Troll got the win after a splash off the second rope in 8:30…Drew tried to get a word with Hoffarth afterwards, but he wasn’t feeling up to an interview after BEING SPLASHED FROM THE SECOND ROPE BY A LARGE OPPONENT. Timing, Drew.

“Night Train/Gorgeous/Great One” Gary Jackson & “Ironman” Ken Kasa vs. “The Icon” Chris Hargas(w/ Travis Cook), “St. Louis Handicap Match”: Hargas & Espinosa defeated Kasa in this style of match in May, so Hargas wanted to prove that he could do what Kasa couldn’t. The match had a fifteen-minute limit and the tag team would win if the single wrestler couldn’t win a decision in that time frame. Kasa wanted to fight on his own and asked Gary to stay outside the ring…so the match was basically a singles bout with Gary doing his beset to thwart interference attempts by Travis Cook.

Travis was able to get involved enough that the referee was distracted after Kasa delivered the John Wu Dropkick…at that moment, Jackson chased Travis back to the dressing room area. Kasa locked on a version of the rear naked choke as the time limit ticked down, but Hargas didn’t tap out until RIGHT after the closing bell sounded at 15:00. Technically Jackson & Kasa won the match, but Kasa wanted a decisive victory…so the July show will feature a thirty-minute Ironman Match between Kasa and Hargas. Goodie.

Johnny Blade vs. “The Tokyo Monster” Kahagas(w/ Travis Cook): Blade returned to the St. Louis area fairly recently after previously being a regular for both SICW and the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Alliance. Kahagas won with a pumphandle Michinoku Driver in 5:54.

Ron Powers vs. Attila Khan for the Classic Title, Travis Cook Banned From Ringside: The past two months of Wrestling Explosion have attempted to compare this rivalry to Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah The Butcher, as Powers is a protege of the late Brody and Khan has a similar style to the “Madman From The Sudan”. This wasn’t a technical classic and wasn’t expected to be…Khan played that popular Memphis game of “Where Oh Where Could The Foreign Object Be?” Hey, it ticks off the fans and that’s what counts for a rulebreaker. Ron had control when the rulebreakers’ locker room essentially emptied on Khan’s behalf to cause the DQ in 3:53. It started with Bubba Troll, then continued with Brandon Espinosa, Chris Hargas, and Kahagas with Big Daddy attempting to direct traffic.

It took a while for the fan favorites’ locker room to get the memo, but finally Ken Kasa and Gary Jackson hit the ring to help. Once they brought chairs into the fray, the rulebreakers backed off…that wrapped up the show.