Your Trip to Space Mountain
PWP “Malicious Mayhem” on September 20, 2008
By Brian “Flair” Kelley
flairwhoooooo@yahoo.com
Wrestling promoters usually have a title for their show to add excitement for the fans, WWE has the Summerslam and TNA has Lockdown. Pro Wrestling Phoenix’s card for September was called Malicious Mayhem. PWP’S main event on the evening would be a “Fans bring the weapons match”, and with that one match, I was able to convince my girlfriend for the 270 mile trip to Council Bluffs, Iowa . To say she was prepared was an understatement as she packed 30 industrial light bulbs, to be used in the match that would pit Chris Havius vs. Stephen Saint.
Also on the card was the excitement of seeing live for the first time, the Pro Wrestling Phoenix Champion, Abu Colossus. PWP also have the best tag teams in the Midwest in the LONRS (Mark Sterling and Showtime Darrien Sanders) and Simply the Best( Hype Gottiand Babyface Tony Cortez) who would be tagging with none other than the always entertaining Number One, Brett Young.Going into the show I knew they had talent, just was concerned on the presentation.
[The Sensational One, Sean Cruz is dressed to kill on this night.]
My first PWP experience was about to begin as the self proclaimed “The Sensational One”, Sean Cruz entered the ring with a look of disdain towards the fans. The music hits for the next wrestler and the kid sitting next to me goes nuts, jumping up and down with his homemade poster in his hand. This has me wandering if they had a WWE /TNA star on the card with how excited this young boy was. Who was about to come out from the curtain? Would it be Former WWE Star Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore? Or maybe it was TNA Superstar Sonjay Dutt who has been on prior shows at PWP. The man was none other than…. Donnie Peppercricket ???
[Donnie Peppercricket comes to the ring with much support from the PWP faithful.]
Peppercricket was ranked number 91 in the 2008 Missouri Wrestling Revival Top 100, and this would be the first time that I would get to see him in person. From the looks of it, he had been working out and seemed to be in better shape than the times I had seen him wrestling on dvd in the past. There was no doubt that he was OVAH with the PWP fan base, Peppercricket had Cruz reeling, or maybe that was Cruz’s strategy because when Peppercricket went to the top he hit a flying body cross, Cruz yelled out in agony. The ref immediately asked for Peppercricket to give Cruz a break to see what was wrong. Peppercricket sincerely begged for someone to come from the dressing room to help Cruz, and with that one moment of weakness, Cruz struck from behind with a shot to the groin and then was able to hit a Snapmare Driver for the cowardly win.
The next contest saw Preston Maxwell taking on the ever popular Jimmy Rockwell. Just looking at Maxwell, one can tell he is not a technical messiah, but he was smart enough to know he had to slow Rockwell down, so he attempted to put his weight on his opponent and never allow Rockwell to get into a rhythm as I have seen him do in prior matches. When Rockwell would get the upperhand, Maxwell would bail out of the ring, which in turn flustered his opponent. This would allow Maxwell to capitalize with the Inside Cradle.
[LONRs’ – Mark Sterling and “Showtime” Darrien Sanders let Daniels know that he is in for a world of hurt coming out to the ring by himself.]
The next match was to be for the Tag Team Championship as the LONRS would defend their belts against the tag team of Leslie Ray and Joey Daniels, The SuperFriends. When Daniels came out alone with the deer in the headlights look, I knew he was in trouble. No tag team in the Midwest smell blood as the LONRS do and I had seen this myself in a match earlier this year at All American Pro Wrestling when they took advantage of JT Calhoun when his tag team partner Mike Masters left Calhoun out to dry. The LONRS took care of business then, and on this night it looked to be no different. The LONRS were taunting Daniels when out from the back came Donnie Peppercricket, who said he had no ideal why Ray was not there but he would do his best to bring home the Gold for the good guys. Though I give Donnie props for coming to bat for Daniels, this match was textbook LONRS, as they kept their opponent on their side of the ring with perfect tags. At one point the Superfriends would make the tag but it would not be long before the LONRS used some perfect distractions to get the upper hand. The LONRS are among the top tag teams in the Midwest and they teamed up and hit Peppercricket with the spike piledriver and the 1-2-3 as they retained their tag team titles.
The Rebel would be next as Jeremy Wyatt would be taking on Zac James. This was a mismatch on paper but don’t tell James that as he withstood the Rebels early onslaught, and with one swift move, James took out Wyatts legs and was relentless there on, James worked on the legs and the strategy was paying off as Wyatt never seemed to get more than two moves together. What look to be an upset in the making was not to be as Wyatt would put it all together and James would go down on the list of the wrestlers who has fallen in the past year and a half in Pro Wrestling Phoenix to the Rebel Jeremy Wyatt.
[Zac James pulls out all stops and strikes low on Jeremy Wyatt leg.]
[On this night James worked the perfect game plan as he punished Wyatts legs with a Boston crab. James was unable to get the win but earned this fans respect with the outing.]
The PWP bad boys Simply the Best,could easily be the most underrated tag team in the Midwest. These guys have the same tag team philosophy as the LONRS as they execute moves in perfect unison, but all the while they seem to want to get their kicks by antagonizing the fans and their opponents with their juvenile tactics, something I feel ashamed in Admitting is always entertaining. On this night they would be teaming with another charismatic wrestler in #1 Brett Young, a wrestler who just last month challenged the PWP Champion Abu Colossus for the title.
[Brett Young and Simply the Best works over Jaysin Strife with the classic triple team early on in the six man tag.]
The PWP Champion was looking to take care of business with his tag team partners Vic Victory and Jaysin Strife. Chaos would quickly ensue as Simply the Best and Young were causing trouble throughout the match with mind games. At one point, Hype Gotti had Strife grounded; Gotti teased the monstrous Abu by holding Strife’s hand just out of the reach of the Big Hurt. The big guy was so frustrated that he came in and sent bodies flying, but without the tag, the ref sent him back to the ring. Abu would be the Power while Strife and Victory would be the speed that was able to overcome the odds on this night and with a big Colossal Slam, Abu got the victory for his team.
Abu was celebrating in the ring when Jeremy Wyatt entered to issue a challenge for the PWP Championship match at next months show. Wyatt reminded Abu that he has not been defeated at PWP for over a year and a half and the time has come for the Rebel to become the champ. This match will be very interesting to see how Wyatt can overcome the rare power that Abu Colossus brings to the table. A match that I can not miss as it should be one that will be talked about for years to come.
[Jeremy Wyatt issues a challenge to Abu Colossus for the PWP title at the October 25th show when Pro Wrestling Phoenix returns to Council Bluffs.]
[Wrestlers themselves even seemed amazed at the plethora of weapons that the fans had brought for the match that Chris Havius and Stephen Saint would have later in the evening. Here Jaysin Strife is checking out one half of the pile with fans during intermission. Fortunately for the ladies, Jaysin did not have any part of the damage later on in the evening.]
I will not even try to relay to you in words the brutality and damage that occured during the Fans Bring the Weapons Match but will now share with you pictures along with short captions of one of the most eye dropping action I have ever seen. Readers beware as this is not for the faint of heart.
For fans of Hardcore I present you Malicious Mayhem
It’s a shame that the pictures can not give the full effects to the action of the two men going at it. PWP had close to 50 more Industrial light bulbs than what my girlfriend brought and when they went off it echoed around the building with the boom of a shotgun, with glass flying everywhere. The only two people smart enough to wear protective eyewear was the ref and my girlfriend. Malicious Mayhem had in fact lived up to the cards name after all.
Amazingly Attendance was light on this evening but that did not stop the wrestlers from showing up and giving the fans a 110 percent. With all independent wrestling, some matches are better than others, the same could be said about the wrestlers and this night was no different. Yet truthfully there wasn’t a match that hurt the card. If you were not able to be there, be sure to pick up the DVD as soon as it on the shelves because this card from top to bottom had a little bit of everything.
My friends, I hope to see you at a show soon. Till next time just remember the stars of tomorrow are only an independent show away.
Brian “Flair” Kelley
For more info on Pro Wrestling Phoenix go to www.prowrestlingphoenix.com.
Hollister had one of the toughest schedules of all wrestlers in the Midwest for the month of May. It all started with a tough tag team loss (with Bryce Benjamin) to the Motor City Machine Guns in AAW. It was all good after that, as he followed the loss up with a victory (although tainted) over Egotistico Fantastico in a hard-hitting affair, the closed out the month by defending his Scott County Wrestling Title not once, but twice in one night. He retained the title after defeating Danny Daniels and Marek Brave. It was a successful month for Shane Hollister, as he wrestled some of the best in the business and came out on top in three out of the four encounters.
The Phoenix Twins continue to impress wrestling fans across the Midwest. This month, Tweek and Dash won two non-title matches against current tag champions in SCW and AAW. They also each competed in singles matches as part of “Best of Three” series of matches with members of Zero Gravity, splitting the contests and inching closer to being the number one contenders for the SCW Tag Team Titles. For 2008, Tweek and Dash have set the bar very high. It often seems as if they are the only tag team that can surpass this high standard.
Stacy O’Brien has emerged in the second quarter of 2008 as the premier female wrestler in the Midwest. She currently owns the World League Wrestling and MMWA-SICW Women’s Championships. She defeated Ms. Natural and Alexis Lightfoot for each belt, respectively. In yet another month where female wrestlers have been inactive, Stacy is a step in the right direction.
I have seen Mark Sterling and Darrien Sanders many times before, but this would be the first time that I would see them in person as The LONRS. These two have been making a name for themselves in the Midwest tag team division lately. The crowd was hot for The LONRS to get what was coming to them before the match even started. The fans were excited to see All American J.T.Calhoun and his partner Mike Masters enter the ring, with chants of “USA! USA!” ringing throughout the gym.
The next match seemed to be a mismatch, at least on paper, as MWR wrestler of the month for April 2008 “The Future” Donovan Ruddick faced “Playboy” Paul Rose. Rose was accompanied by his manger, Gaylord Stevens. Stevens is one of the best managers I have seen in the indies, because as soon as he walks through a curtain the fans know that they want to see his guy lose. “Playboy” Paul Rose, whom I had seen in action before, has a ton of charisma and can really move for a guy that looks totally out of shape. This may have been the hardest hitting match of the night, and it received my girlfriend’s favorite match award for the night. “The Future” would go on to win the match, but not without a fight as Rose and Stevens gave him fits throughout.
Intermission was over and AAPW had the card set up perfectly as they re energized the crowd with another good match. Edmund “Livewire” McGuire hooked up with Ax Stevens, who was accompanied by his manger Gaylord Stevens. Edmund used his speed to cause Stevens all kinds of problems, but just when you thought McGuire would get the win, Gaylord would interfere, allowing Ax to bring the pain for Edmund. “Livewire” has been on a roll as of late, but when he went up top for a leg drop, Ax moved and then used a piledriver for a victory that stunned not only myself but the entire crowd.
“#1” Brett Young and K.C. Jackson entered the ring to demand some action, but had to belittle the Chester natives, too. K.C. and Brett let them know that they were all number two, which made them the first losers. This went on for some time before the intimidating promoter Sean Chambers had had enough. He called the Atomic Dogg to the ring. I am not a fan of a 2 on one contest because I feel as if it makes the wrestlers that are teaming up look weak, but on this occasion the wrestlers had a very entertaining match. It made sense and the Dogg was very over with the crowd. The Dogg would able to with stand the double teams and pin the two wrestlers for the victory.
In the main event of the evening former AAPW Champion, “Homicidal” Steven Davis received his 1 on 1 rematch with the current champ, “Serial Thriller” Shane Rich. Davis entered the ring with his manager, and I think AAPW has the use of managers down to a science. The managers had the right “bad guy” look and really knew how to work the crowd. This was a great match, and the girls in attendance were clearly on Shane’s side. They screamed every time Steven Davis got the upper hand.
Missouri Wrestling Revival 