By Brian “Flair” Kelley
Eric Allen “The Peorian Pride Champion”? If you are a fan of wrestling and did not know that such a title existed then you are not alone. Just by chance I was in Wood River Illinois to check out MECW for MWR when this brash cocky Eric Allen was introduced to the crowd as the Peorian Pride Champion (much to my surprise) in his match with Brian Scrilla. I consider myself knowledgeable of the independent scene in this area but this was the first that I had heard of such a title.
With the camera in hand I watched as Allen used every trick in the book to keep his coveted title belt. Scrilla was the victim of foul play when “Exxxplicit Content” member Ryan Slade’s valet Jenna Stark distracted the referee, to allow Slade to use the belt on Scrilla’s knee to preserve the victory and retain the title.
I was able to catch up with Allen after the match to ask him “Where did you win this belt?” His reply to me was that he had won the belt in Peoria Illinois. Allen stated “Peoria is famous for the fact that for something to succeed it must work in Peoria. If it works in Peoria then it will work anywhere. The Pro Wrestling legends organization got together and decided to bring all the top stars in Illinois and several superstars of the WWE, TNA and ROH. We competed in an underground tournament of 64 to determined Champion to finally get to the truth too who the best wrestler in the world really was” When I plainly asked who the superstars were that was in the tournament Allen was quick to say “I have no time for 20 questions, I have to get back to Peoria, they are having a parade to commemorate my victory tonight.”
While I was on the three hour trip back from MECW and wrestling was hot on my mind. I could not wait to do the research and find out more about this Championship and more importantly why MWR was not invited?
On Monday evening I decided to see how Allen’s parade went. I went on the trusty websites and did a search for parade in Peoria March 21….nothing. I thought maybe it was listed on March 22 beings that it was so late….nothing. Hmmm… I did a thorough search on the Peoria’s newspaper websites and still came up with zilch. Who knows maybe it was “underground”!
I decided to contact some of the MWR Wrestling advisers. One correspondent that wished to remain anonymous enlightened me with some great information.
I was told that Eric Allen “started out in Gateway Championship Wrestling in St Louis under the tutelage of Dingo for 5 months. During the later stages of the company Ego Express (KC Karrington and Steven Kennedy) , Shorty Biggs, Sean Vincent and Cameron Cage took over the training. Allen quickly felt that he had trained with the best, so that proved that he was superior to the rest of the locker room and he had yet to have a match.
The correspondent went on to tell me that “His (Eric Allen) ego escalated even further when his hand was raised in Overland Park when he defeated Trent Stone. In Eric’s mind he was a World Champion in the making. Then by surprise GCW went under and he was left without a home promotion. When you saw Eric all he ever talked about was how he could have been the greatest Gateway Championship Champion of all time. Time went on and he never really seemed to be focused.”
Then he got the call from Lethal Wrestling Alliance to wrestle young Brandon Aarons when the Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) came to town. He told anyone that would listen, take notice because the MCMG may take him back with them to TNA after he schooled “This punk kid”.
Aarons was able to get the win and really seemed to get in the head of Allen. Later that same month Allen got another chance to show the LWA what he was made of defeating “Just” Rick Stone. After the match was over Allen spent the rest of the night lobbing LWA Management for another chance at Brandon Aaron claiming that their first match was fluke. Allen received his wish and when LWA returned to St Charles the next month the two went at it again it was a repeat of their first encounter.
Allen just disappeared for almost a year and hit rock bottom when he was defeated by Steven Miller. Eric Allen who envisioned himself as the next World Champion was furious and humiliated when an LWA fan started a thread asking “Who the F is Eric Allen?” One fan thought is was a ref, another one replied he is good a drawing pictures, and one Superfan demanded that he got to see pictures of this Eric Allen still in disbelief that he existed.
High Voltage Wrestling certainly knows who Eric Allen is. They got to see first hand the talent first hand on March 14th where he was very impressive in his domination of Max Archer. After the match was over he was seen lobbying HVW booker Frank Thurman for a HVW title shot with comments like “Let me put HVW on the wrestling map, HVW is young and fresh looking to strive to become the best in the Midwest and I can bring the promotion to the next level.
My correspondent went on to say “The last I caught up with Eric Allen he had told me how he had won this Peorian Pride Championship.” (I had not told my contact where and how Allen had told me he won it) Allen said that he was headlined in a huge secret fundraising wrestling event for the Republican Party at the Peoria Civic Center to determined the very first Peorian Pride Champion. He would not say who he fought but hinted that it was a former WWE Superstar who happens to be in the UFC right now. Any fool would know that he was wanting me to think that it was Brock Lesner but when I humored him and asked was it Lesner he replied “ I would love to tell you but you know the government, everything is a secret.”
He ended it with “The man is talented, there is no doubt about it. The problem is his lack of friends due to his ego.” The man is shady and I wouldn’t turn my back on him if I was one of his friends.
Word got back to Allen that I was inquiring information about his title and history and he contacted me via e-mail. It was short and sweet, “Mr. Kelley make your way to Woodriver Illinois on April 25 at MECW to see the future of the sport and if you’re lucky I will give you the time to know more about the most dominate champion of the Midwest, Eric Allen “The Peorian Pride Champion”. Tell my fans that I am blessing them with my appearance at High Voltage Wrestling in May when they return to Granite City, IL on May 9th.”
It looks as if I will have to wait a little longer to find out the truth of Eric Allen. Join MWR at Woodriver Illinois on April 25 as we try to get to the truth of the Peorian Pride Championship. Till then for more information on this show please go to MECWrestling.com
To book Eric Allen please contact him via his myspace page by clicking here Peorian Pride Champion
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Missouri Wrestling Revival 