Vintage Wrestling in Sanford, October 24th, 2009

[Blair Russell]

As always, this opinion only belongs to me.

I gripe about some local stupidity, then regale you with the tale of me pinning Mr. Milo Beasley.

Since the last time I wrote here early this month, I did have the opportunity to write about a few things, but I just haven’t felt like it; you know, I had a feeling of malaise about most of it. I’ll still briefly mention the stuff that comes to mind now:

• A woman on the Florida Wrestling Fans board started a thread about how she promoted a show in MacClenny (although a link on her page seemed to suggest that it was a promotion rather than just a one-off show) for a relative as they wanted to do a show themselves but weren’t able to and they passed away awhile back; well, another promoter who had dibs on the building she was going to use caused problems and I won’t give all the details, but what was the response to her post? Was she attacked because of her poor grammar and spelling? Sure, and that’s valid, I suppose, but was she told that-for example-maybe she should’ve tried to work things out with that promoter before trying to have that show? Why no, instead she was called “a ring rat” and was told other misogynistic comments, which was disappointing to read. Even if she was/is a ring rat, what was said about her was distasteful and instead of attacking her just because she has a vagina, someone should’ve told her that maybe she should’ve handled things differently with that promoter, not to mention reveal to her that, hey, promoters in general don’t seem to have much in the way of any scruples. I’m speaking in general here so don’t get personally offended, and also, I’m talking about the history of pro wrestling promoters, not just current promoters in this state.
• A guy who looks like a taller Tom Savini starting a thread on Florida Wrestling Fans plugging his “wrestling school” down near Ft. Myers. Turns out, it’s a tiny 12 by 12 foot piece of shit that’s right by his *trailer* and when someone posted an article about him that was written a few years ago, he claimed in print that he turned down a lucrative WWE deal. Sure, there have been many cases in the past of no-name clowns working newspapers and claiming that they were much more famous than they actually were/are, but it’s something I’ll laugh at rather than get offended at, as anyone who signs up to train with that goof gets what they deserve.
• A videoclip was posted of a rancid tag match; it was from Jacksonville’s Thunder Wrestling Federation, a fed that’s been around for years and I’ve never heard anything good about it.

Oh, there’s been other stuff but it’s not important enough to mention here, except…

Mister Saint Laurent acting like a 5 year old… like he always does.

In short, MSL was recently on Florida Wrestling Radio and he acted like a child and pouted about various things, and brought up Frankie Capone’s name. When I heard that Capone would be on that podcast the following Monday, I immediately knew what would happen, and indeed I’m correct. MSL is coming out of retirement as he’s giving up his “music career” (like I predicted way back when, the music thing would just be a fad and he’d lose interest in it and find something new to do) and in January at Vintage (why not I Believe, I don’t know, but I don’t care!) they’ll face off; I can guarantee that I will NOT be at that event, for obvious reasons. I’d recommend that no one go to that event, as a matter of fact, but it’s not like I can really sway anyone with my opinions.

By the way, last weekend when Believe had a show with bad attendance (other things were going on so maybe that was it, but it could be a number of things so I won’t speculate) Mr. Wrestling 19 speculated that it was due to MSL’s controversial statements that caused the bad attendance and someone else said the same thing. I thought, “Um, what controversial statements?” I swear, it wasn’t until the Sunday after MSL’s controversial appearance on a podcast where he acted like a BITCH for the most part and said a bunch of garbage against people who didn’t deserve it just so that a worked match can come from it did I even hear of the controversy! I swear it’s true. It wasn’t anywhere on MSL’s board, on WG’s board, or on the Florida Wrestling Fans board. Only the God-awful Afro Squad board talked about it, and I never visit that place anymore. It was better when I didn’t know about Jared David acting like a toddler; the day that he’s gone from the local wrestling scene permanently (no matter what the reason for him never returning to it or having any effect on it) will be amongst the best days in the history of this state’s indy scene! Mark my words, that black cloud that has ruined so many things with his sick diseased mind (as I’ve said on my MySpace/Facebook blogs, he’s not that far away now from painting with his own poop!)… when the sunshine comes and his bullshit is no more, hip hip hurray!

But now, onto this review. I wasn’t sure what to think of the event given what happened at the last show and how I had my issues with it. I still like the Royal Rumble concept and I rarely see it live at an indy show, so that was a big reason why I attended, even though the UFC show on the same night was of interest to me. After hearing about the event and especially the highway robbery of the main event, though, I’m glad I didn’t skip the show to see it in full or even head to a sports bar after this event to catch the end of it.

The attendance of this show was less than before, that’s for sure. Early on it was looking pretty bad but as usual, quite a few people “pulled a Tuthill” and arrived pretty late. I mean, they waited to start this at 7:50 instead of 7:30 and fools were still streaming in even after it had started. Figures. The ring announcer here wasn’t Scotty Sweatervest nor was it that Seth dude who did it the last time. Rather, it was a random young African-American gentleman, who was fine in that role. At least he didn’t try to put himself over the wrestlers…

1. Kory Chavis defeated Aaron Epic (w/ Lucky O’Shea) to win the Vintage Internet TV Title. This was a pretty good contest. It was originally going to be Epic defending his title vs. TJ Perkins, but Perkins was on Raw and ECW this past week and he apparently got injured there as he wasn’t at this show. Epic had referee Josh Rich count out Perkins, but that wasn’t it for the champ; instead, Kory Chavis made a surprise appearance and Epic had to wrestle him. Kory had the early advantage and used technical wrestling, to the crowd’s nonplussed reaction; sad to say, but true. They were an odd crowd at times, and I wish they would’ve been much nosier for the majority of this. But, Epic took over for a few minutes and wore down Chavis, while O’Shea was a cheater cheater pumpkin eater and interfered more than once while Aaron had Rich distracted. The ending had Kory pinning Epic, but Lucky got on the apron and once again distracted Josh, and Josh must still be a lonely man who is longing for more companionship than what he gets from his cats as he decided to chat with the red-haired dame. Kory was distracted and rolled him up but Chavis kicked out at 2. A minute later Kory was able to get the win and win the title. Epic was literally in tears as he sulked his way to the back; at least the crowd was happy to see the big heel lose and be made a fool of.

By the way, the ringbell that was used for the first match? Why, it was Mr. Wrestling 19 striking the ringpost with a hammer! I kid you not. Before the second bout, though, a ringbell was found so that could be used.

2. QT Marshall defeated Leon Scott, Mr. Milo Beasley (w/ Mr. Milo Bearsley), and Bruce Santee to win the 30th spot in the Florida Rumble. Santee took the place of Eddie Taurus, who was scheduled but didn’t show up for whatever reason; he wasn’t the only guy I can say that about. This was good, I guess, but I remember more about entrance music and post-match shenanigans rather than the bout itself. Leon came out to new entrance music (but of course in Vintage Wrestling! You can’t have the same music for two straight shows seems to be the general rule) and I have no idea who it was but it was great as douche-y music so it fit Leon… er, I mean it fit Leon’s character well, yeah that’s it. The four men all wrestled together at the same time in this match that was first pinfall wins. Not everything was picture perfect but it was still entertaining. The ending was Robin Donahue coming out and aiding QT. The ref was distracted and QT pinned Bruce.

After the match was great comedy. It has to be said that during the bout, Santee used Bearsley (Milo’s small pet teddybear) as a weapon, and the bear’s hat *and* pants came off. After the bout, Milo was complaining about how the bear lost its pants and he asked for dollar bills from the crowd so that as a homeless man he’d have some money. During all that, the referees and some other people were out there fixing an issue with the ring. So, Milo stalled for them and he was hilarious. He even said that at intermission you could pin him in the middle of the ring for a buck! No kidding.

3. Raymond “Killing Machine” Snow defeated Joey “Hood” Saint. This was fine, I guess. Saint is really new; he’s a very large biker-looking guy and he actually weighs more than Snow. He looks like a waif compared to how large he was a few years ago. I wish that he wasn’t such a brown-noser to MSL (but I guess that with the butt-kissing, he can not only hold a made-up phony belt given to him by a bunch of dipshits who aren’t even wrestling fans but also a belt from a dead promotion that isn’t even defended in the fed that is in essence SCW version 2.0) but after I heard that Saint was acting a fool on the Afro Squad board* and insulted at least one person I know, I was hoping for Snow to beat some respect into that young punk. It didn’t really happen but instead it was a longer than expected match that was Even Steven for much of it. Saint is definitely new and maybe in time he’ll improve, but at this point… but Snow tried to make it entertaining. At least Joey knows how to be a heel and yell at the crowd. Anyway, Snow won with something or another.

• By the way, some Bourbon Street Mafia were there. I ignored them. No Afro Squad guys were there, thankfully.

Chris Carson came out with that midget bodyguard and Jason Sensation and he stated how good SCW was and how he’s bitter, yada yada yada. He introduced the surprise tag partner for Sensation and in no surprise, it was the return of Tommy Marr. Now, the last time he was there, he was a heel but got a lot of cheers and he was with a demure lady. Of course, this time around he’s a full-fledged heel that no one likes and that lady wasn’t there. Figures.

4. Thomas Marr-Jason Sensation defeated Nooie Lee-Mike Cruz. This was a pretty good contest, although at points it wasn’t picture perfect. It at least was heated. The battle between Cruz and Sensation was interesting as both have been calling themselves “The Prodigy” for awhile now. Jason’s chest was marked via some brutal chops from both Lee and Cruz. When the heels took over they were cheaters and that got the audience fired up. It was one of the few times they seemed into what was going on. The fan favorites eventually got control again and things happened and the bad guys won; because of that, Carson will book the next Vintage show, which is November 7th. If the faces would have won, Carson would leave Vintage forever, so I figured this was going to be the result. As it’s a storyline-heavy show that probably will make me angry more than once or twice, on the 7th I won’t be at Vintage and instead I plan on being at WXW’s event in Leesburg.

By the way, where was Sean Solo at this show? He was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Jesse Neal.

5. Sam Shaw (w/ Robin Donahue) defeated Sinn Bohdi (w/ Titan, or Tower, or whatever name he uses in this fed)
to retain the Vintage Wrestling Heavyweight Title. This was pretty good and a lot of fun. As expected there was comedy early on and there were lols when Sinn rubbed his butt in Shaw’s face, and you got to see some more unique offense from Bodhi. The thing I remember most about this, though, is how referee Josh Rich got some “action” from Sinn! When he checked Sinn to see if there were any foreign objects in his boots (a good idea, as in the Snow match, referee Dan found a spike in Saint’s boot), and Bodhi wrapped his legs around Rich’s head! It was as homoerotic as it sounded. A little later, Sinn briefly danced with Josh, then *kissed* him. Don’t ask me if it was on the lips or not as I didn’t get the best view of that action, but that may have been more action than Josh has gotten from a girl in a few years! Anyhow, Shaw took over for a few minutes and it took some effort, but finally the crowd got into it and they cheered on Bodhi. The tide turned when Sam missed a wild move off the top rope where I wasn’t sure what it was going to be (maybe he didn’t know either) but he landed on his coccyx; ouchie! Sinn took over, but stuff happened and via screwy means, the Stimulus won the contest. Afterwards, Sinn got his revenge and amongst other things, Titan/Tower/whatever his name is chokeslammed the champ.

Intermission time. It was like 20 minutes or so. People were out for autographs and all that. But, the main highlight was that Milo lived up to his word and for a dollar, referee Frankie Gastineau allowed you in the ring and you got to pin Beasley and Frankie made the count. Quite a few people did that, so that was a pretty AWESOME way for Naph to make some extra dough. Someone wanted me to do it and initially I denied, but then Milo himself asked me to do it, and I couldn’t turn that down. That’s right, I pinned Beasley, and I think at least 5 people took pictures/video of it! Of course I haven’t seen any of that visual evidence online yet, but maybe one day… as that would be quite the picture to share with everyone online.

6. Bruce Santee won the Florida Rumble. This was like a Royal Rumble, with 90 second intervals. I don’t know how accurate that is as sometimes I wondered if time was shaved off, but it was definitely over 30 minutes long. The first man out was Frankie Capone, as he asked to be number 1 at the last show; why he did that, I’m not quite sure, but OK then. I know I’ll end up forgetting stuff but I’ll try to list at least some of the main things that happened during this match.

• I was thinking that Leon Scott would win this match as hey, he beat JAKE ROBERTS via pinfall at the last show and beating a huge name like that means that it’d be the start of a huge push and he’d win the title in order to explain why they gave Leon such a huge win… right? Why, of course not! He was out there early and he and his two cronies from the God-awful Pro Wrestling eKlipse fed (Vaughn Hampton and Justin Cade, who wore magnificent tights that look like something that Superstar Billy Graham would have worn in the mid 80’s) were dumped by Capone. WHY did they give him such a huge win if it means nothing in the long run? Figures.
• There were some people out there that I hadn’t heard of before, much less seen wrestle. The guy that stands out is someone whose name I didn’t hear clearly. He was a VERY hairy guy with long hair and a beard (anyone who posts on the Figure Four Weekly board and knows the name Ed in San Antonio, think of him minus 100 pounds and that’s this hairy Wildman character). Some of the new guys out there (guys I had heard of and not heard of) paid their dues via the veterans doing stuff like chopping them very hard. I presume that some of the new guys were able to wrestle as other guys (like The Heartbreak Express) didn’t show up.
• Simon Sez came out and he was a chicken and stalled, doing stuff like stretching. Later, out came Bobby Fonta, and as they’ve feuded in several different feds, he went after Simon and they made it to the ring. He then eliminated Simon and the crowd was very happy with that.
• Barney Rumble came out and he got eliminated right away by Frankie Capone. So, he re-entered… and was eliminated a second time by Capone. It then happened one more time and Barney finally got the message
• Chasyn Rance came out and Frankie was eagerly awaiting him to come in, due to the whole MSL thing. Chasyn stalled and then finally got in, and both guys laid in some stiff shots.
• Maxwell Chicago came out and he had the gimmick of… a lounge singer! He sang on the mic as he entered. He held onto the mic and seconds later he was eliminated, so he then sang about how he was sad that he was gone already. That was pretty AWESOME, no lie.
• Other stuff happened (the match was never boring as a lot happened to keep people entertained), but the final two guys were QT and Santee. They fought for a few minutes (which may have been a little long, but it was still loved by the crowd) and after teases, Bruce finally eliminated Marshall and thus he’ll get a title shot at the same January show that has MSL “wrestling” vs. Frankie Capone.

Overall this show had hits and misses and some stuff was pretty dumb, but at the end of the night I was still entertained by this 2 hour and 45 minute show. The Florida Rumble (which I can’t really rate as I rate other matches) was well-done and even with some guys in there being greener than a leprechaun’s ass (to steal a real old quote from a shoot interview), it was a bout that I enjoyed.

My next show review should be WXW in Leesburg on the 7th.