A Wrestling show by Central States Wrestling, then known as Dynamic Wrestling Federation

It’s been an incredible year for the Kansas City-based wrestling company Central States Wrestling, formerly known as Dynamic Wrestling Federation. They have just completed their final show of the year, Deal With the Steel IV, to both high praise and an impressive attendance record being set. I started attending these shows in the early summer when I saw a Facebook ad and decided to bring my son along with me for the ride. I’ve spoken about the whys and hows of my attraction to the company as a whole, so I won’t go into it here yet again, but let’s just say once I saw that a company called “Central States Wrestling” was running shows, I knew I had to attend. Since I have about six months of time that I was not following the company to make up for, I decided today to go back and start watching some of the older shows that are featured on YouTube. These go back to the tail end of 2021, and a new show was out on about every couple of months until the present.

It has been fun to watch some of these old shows considering you might see people that are currently heels ( or “bad guys”) that at one time were babyfaces (fan favorites or “good guys”) and vice versa. Some people have older versions of their current gimmicks, and occasionally nothing had clicked yet. A prime example of this is the fan favorite tag team of The Howletts, premiering here as notorious heels dubbed “The Most Dangerous Tag Team”, going up against their arch rivals The Premier, who were babyfaces at this time. In its infancy, Dynamic Wrestling Federation definitely had a small budget that they expertly stretched, and with all things considered (like the tail end of Covid-19) was STILL able to put on a hell of a show. I’ve personally attended shows from far more established local companies that draw far less so seeing a crowd of around 300 or so in this video is actually somewhat impressive. It goes to show that the Kansas City professional wrestling market starves for professional wrestling that lies outside of the mindset of the established television brands. Without further ado, here’s my look at the very first Central States Wrestling, formerly known as Dynamic Wrestling Federation show – All Out War. This show features a tournament to declare the first DWF World Heavyweight Champion.

While you can watch this show for free, most other wrestling shows are not. If you want to see some pay-per-views, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch these shows, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

This show is actually aired on YouTube, so check this out:

The Card:

All Out War took place on Saturday, September 25, 2021 at the Camelot Ballroom in Overland Park, Kansas.

• Round One – “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt defeated Redwing
• Round One – “The Wrestling Genius” Daniel Makabe defeated “The Connoisseur” Niles plonk
• Round One – “The Infamous” Devin Thomas defeated Moonshine Mantell
• Round One – “Dirty” Jake Dirden w/ Roscoe Leech defeated Gill Rogers w/ Jimmy Hart
• Semi-finals – “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt defeated “The Wrestling Genius” Daniel Makabe
• Semi-finals – “The Infamous” Devin Thomas defeated “Dirty” Jake Dirden w/ Roscoe Leech
• Special Attraction – Marti belle defeated Miranda Gordy
• Final Match – “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt defeated “The Infamous” Devin Thomas for the DWF Heavyweight Championship

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

The ol’ Inaugural Tourney:

Most wrestling companies start out with some kind of tournament for their first show as a way to establish a baseline and have a champion to be the face of the band in the early stages. That is exactly what DWF did here with this eight man tournament for the DWF World Heavyweight Championship. I recognize some of the names from shows I’ve been to, and others from other companies, but the most intriguing thing will be the people that I recognize from the Central States Wrestling roster page that have yet to appear in later 2022. I actually enjoy this sort of thing a lot as it can go a long way to set up starting feuds and introduce people to a number of new wrestlers fairly easily.

The Mouth of The South:

The best way to draw a crowd at any independent wrestling event is to advertise the appearance of a wrestling legend, and you couldn’t pick a better choice than somebody like “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart! He’s managed the likes of Hulk Hogan, The Nasty Boyz, Money Inc., and even The Hart Foundation to great success, and that isn’t even mentioning his numerous contributions as a music producer. I’m sad I missed out on this at the time that this happened, and I’m hoping CSW starts the new year off with a bang by doing something like this again!

Unfamiliar Faces:

It was interesting to see a number of faces on these early shows that have yet to resurface for the majority of 2022 – guys like Redwing and Daniel Makabe especially. Redwing seems like the perfect guy to be a heavy in some sort of viking-themed tag team, and Daniel Makabe has an interesting gimmick that I would like to see more of to understand what’s going on there. Also notable are Miranda Gordy and Marti Belle, who showed up here and have yet to be on any other show I’ve watched so far. I can see that CSW is correctly building up a tag division for the inevitable tag team belts, so hopefully a Women’s division is also on the drawing board.

Dirty Jake:

I actually attended a show in 2010-12, as far as I can remember, in which I was able to witness a young Jake Dirden when he was still training for World League Wrestling at a Pro Wrestling NOAH camp under Harley Race. If I recall, he won some sort of award and was likened to a young Bruiser Brody in both his size and style at the time. I know he’s been a fixture around here for a while and even dabbled in Ring of Honor, but this is my forst time seeing him in a looong time and I enjoy his stuff a lot. Standing at a monstrous 6 foot 8 inches tall, not too many size up to Mr. Dirden and he has only gotten more ferocious and mean in the last decade. He is impressive here, and with Roscoe Leech suffering a savage beating at Deal With the Steel IV, he may be wanting to bring out some “old toys” and go for the gold once again.

Love me Some Gill Rogers:

Known by some other names throughout the years, like Rory Fox, Gill Rogers is a natural babyface ad an incredible nice guy to meet and talk to. He was at CSW Rise of an Outlaw and took a picture with my son and I while being an overall class act. On the commentary for this show they state that he has NEVER won a single match in Kansas City, which is somewhat staggering. Hopefully he can recover from an injury he suffered a while back fairly quick and CSW fans get treated to a 2023 winning streak. If you like guys like Bob Backlund, it’s hard to not draw a comparison between the two men, and I feel like that works in his favor as guys like him are a dying breed in wrestling today.

Tough Break:

After clawing his way up the bracket and getting a spot in the finals for the DWF World Heavyweight Championship, “The Infamous” Devin Thomas nearly lost his shot at the belt after going against the medical staff and competing after some sort of shoulder injury. The odds were definitely too high and The King of Kansas City, “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt ended up on top with a win and the first, and so far, only reign of the DWF World Heavyweight Championship so far. Thomas hasn’t been at any show I have attended, but it seems like he was set aside as the defacto babyface chasing the belt here, so I wonder what happened to him? Hopefully he’s okay and he shows back up soon. Wyatt is an absolute beast in the ring, and this series of wins marks the beginning of his impressive winning streak that few other CSW wrestlers can ever dream of reaching.

Conclusion:

This was a solid show, and a great way to look back at the humble beginnings of Kansas City’s hottest wrestling promotion, Central States Wrestling. I didn’t do too many things at this time in 2021 largely due to a wave of Covid-19 infections blowing through after the spring, and as a result I am somewhat bummed I missed seeing these shows live. This had some great matches, and set a high bar that the company continues to surpass after each and every show moving forward. If you are looking for an independent company that is going places, check these guys out, I’m sure it will be well worth your time!

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