A live professional wrestling show in Chillicothe, MO

I’m always on the lookout for new opportunities to see live professional wrestling in my area, and with TWENTY active promotions in my general area, I have plenty of choices to branch out into. I generally cast out a net of about 100 miles that I’m willing to drive to attend shows, and not much more. In the past, I have made the mistake of going to shows that are large distances away, and even though they turned out to be really good shows, driving that long is very exhausting for me. Plus, I don’t generally like subjecting my son to long car trips like that. Luckily, I was able to find a company called Tri-States Wrestling which generally operates in the northwestern part of Missouri, including towns like St. Joseph, Bethany, Chillicothe, and Mooresville Missouri. Truthfully, I don’t drive up to this area very often but with it not being too far away I figured what the hell and took the drive.

Speaking of Chillicothe, that was the home for their newest show Sliced Bread Slam, and if you are thinking that’s a bizarre name for a wrestling show, hold onto your hats! I know I’ve driven past Chillicothe, MO in the past but I actually don’t think I’ve ever been there, or if I have it was very brief. Like many small towns in the area, Chillicothe has a pretty interesting claim to fame. I guess in the early 20^th century a bakery in Chillicothe, MO (The Chillicothe Baking Co.) Was the originator of an industrial machine that went on to revolutionize the bread industry in America. It can claim the title of the “birthplace of sliced bread”, albeit with some caveats, of course. The show itself was, in fact, held in this very same building where the bakery once stood, which now has had a large portion sectioned off for some sort of local event space. You can still see the bakery signage and everything on the outside of the building to this day as well as a historical marker.

From the City’s website:

“Yes, Chillicothe is the Home of Sliced Bread! It was recently discovered that sliced bread was first offered for sale – ever – in Chillicothe, Missouri. […] Invented by Iowa inventor, Otto Rohwedder, the bread slicer was put into practice in 1928 in beautiful downtown Chillicothe. A product of the Chillicothe Baking Company, it was sliced on a machine called the Rohwedder Bread Slicer. […] From that moment on, sliced bread became a part of history–a history that began right here, in Chillicothe.”

Despite Chillicothe MO being a fairly small town, this show was a certified sell-out with the entire space basically maxed out to fire code. It’s no wonder why, considering Chillicothe is the hometown of none other than The Ice Man, a long time veteran of the business in the Kansas City area and what many would consider a local legend in Missouri professional wrestling. The story going into the show was that The Ice Man is getting somewhat up there in age, and has been long without any sort of championship gold. Feeling that having a show in his hometown would be the perfect time to make a run for the Tri-States Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship held by Luke Langley, he decided to end his dry spell once and for all. There were Ice Man shirts as far as the eye could see throughout the crowd and you could definitely tell that his fans, family, and friends were out in full force. Not being from Chillicothe means that I could not participate in this hometown vibe that everyone seemed to have but nonetheless the anticipation and emotion throughout the show was palpable. Could The Ice Man reclaim his past glory and bring the gold back to Chillicothe?

For a no frills sort of wrestling experience, I was actually pretty amazed by the quality of the card going into this show – a lineup that was actually the chief reason why I decided to even make a longer drive to go to this. Tri-States Wrestling Sliced Bread Slam was the perfect amalgamation of some of the different groups that I routinely see throughout the Missouri and Kansas wrestling scenes. Some of my favorites from Central States Wrestling were featured alongside some of my favorites from places like Trailblazer Championship Wrestling and New Breed Wrestling, which is definitely something you don’t see too often around here. I was especially surprised and excited to see that a lot of names that I recognized from other companies including Bobby Joe Black, Bert Candy, Doctor Isin were in attendance.

So, let’s get down and dirty and take a look at the ins and outs of what made this show so good. As with any review that I do of this nature, I’m going to talk about all the cool stuff that I saw at this show and let you know why you’re missing out if you’re not attending one of these shows in the future.

The hype material from their website:

“A Dogs Day Tournament was extremely successful, as it closed we saw Luke Langley crowned Champion and the Iceman crowned #1 contender to that very title! Luke Langley defeated Iceman via questionable means on April 1st, then went on to win the TSW Championship on April 2nd thanks to his friend J Fowler. Meanwhile the Iceman survived a 4-man elimination match on April 2nd, defeating “Copperhead” Duke Cornell, “One Man Army” Zay K 47, and “The Classic” Warren Adams. This sets up a title match in Chillicothe Missouri, which also happens to be The Iceman’s hometown! Also on the card, Dr Isin challenges “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt for the US Highway Championship! Wyatt is on his second reign with the title, first winning it in October 2021, then losing it June 9th 2022 on the First Annual TSW Tour, only to regain to back on June 11th 2022 in Macon Missouri. Meanwhile Dr. Isin has never held a title in TSW, nor gotten a title match, so this will be his first! He earned this right by defeating Duke Cornell in the TSW Tournament but being unable to compete on April 2nd due to injuries inflicted by Luke Langley & J Fowler.”

---

If you want other wrestling shows, 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 some of these, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

---

The Card:

• Bobby Joe Black Defeated “Class Act” Warren Adams via DQ after “Dirty Deeds” Daniel Maxen interfered
• Impromptu match: Bert Candy and Bobby Joe Black Defeated “Dirty Deeds” Daniel Maxen and “Class Act” Warren Adams
• “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt (C) Defeated Dr. Isin retaining the US Highway Championship
• Roy “The Strangler” Lewis Defeated The Lumberjack John McKenzie
• Wrex Amadeus Defeated “Wrestling’s Finest” Blaire Dior
• The Iceman Defeated Luke Langley (C) for the Tri-States Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship
  • The Iceman won due to Luke Langley (who retained) getting purposefully counted out, match was restarted
  • The Iceman won due to Luke Langley (who retained) getting purposefully DQ’d after attacking a referee, match was restarted
  • The Iceman finally won by pinfall after match was turned into a No DQ, No Count-Outs match.

---

DISCLAIMER:

I’ve come up with this little disclaimer since I have some new readers:

READ MY FULL DISCLAIMER HERE

I usually go through a show and pull a half dozen or so things that I thought were significant, or that I liked, and concentrate on them, usually ignoring stuff I did not. You might think some of my choices are dumb, and that’s OK! We can all like different things, that’s what makes something like wrestling so great.

(My apologies for crappy pictures I took during the show, my phone does not do well with low-light, or in the case of this particular show, it kept zooming in on the lights)

---

My Thoughts:

Bobby Joe Black is Running Wild!

Hot after his HUGE win at Trailblazer Championship Wrestling – Bunkhouse Brawl, Bobby Joe Black appears to be riding a blaze of glory throughout Missouri and Kansas. The moment that his music hit, and the crowd exploded, I knew we were in for a treat. Black came face-to-face with “Class Act” Warren Adams, a man that really needs to get his act together if he wants to get some wins under his belt. If Adams wasn’t stalling the match endlessly, he was complaining about his headband being messed up, whining about how aggressive his opponent was, or throwing a huge fit shaking a bottle of water all over the place because he didn’t get his way. When Black was about to win, he suffered an attack from none other than “Dirty Deeds” Daniel Maxen, who Adams must have an allegiance with. Luckily, Bert Candy was on standby and helped level the playing field, because it could have gotten real ugly real fast. A second tag-team match was approved between the four, and the team of Black and Candy were finally able to stand tall against this duo of irreputable men. If my son is any indication, Bobby Joe Black and Bert Candy are doing something right, because he was high-fiving everyone he could after the win, and made sure to get a picture with both men later on. Both Bobby and Bert will (hopefully) be appearing next week for TCW, so I can’t wait to see what they can pull off in their separate singles matches.

Jeremy Wyatt, Ever the Crowd Pleaser:

“The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt was on a roll at this event, not only in the way he carried himself in his match against Dr. Isin, but in the way he would not allow the audience any room for criticism sent his way. He is a master at working the crowd, and man does he do it well. One highlight of the whole match was when, on his way to the ring, Wyatt immediately got called out by a child, perhaps 10-12 years old, and by the end of their interaction he had somehow entered into what HE considered a legally binding bet for $500 that he felt showed be enforced by the officials at TSW. By the end of the match, pretty much everyone in the crowd was calling for his blood, and sadly we did not get our wish. That’s one thing about “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt, he can talk the talk, but he is one of the few competitors that can also walk that proverbial walk. This was Dr. Isin’s first title shot at TSW, and here’s hoping he gets more opportunities down the road.

I got to Experience Roy “The Strangler” Lewis 😦

Sometimes you just see a guy, doing his thing, and it makes your skin crawl. For most of the people at TSW: Sliced Bread Slam, one of those people was Roy “The Strangler” Lewis. Roy Lewis is one of those guys that stands outside of a gas station bumming cigarettes from everyone he sees. Roy Lewis is the guy that tries to “return” food he has already eaten at McDonalds for a refund. Roy Lewis is in wrestling for no other reason than to hurt people, and that alone should unnerve people. There were many times when he made the crowd really uncomfortable, including one point when Lewis started suffering “a wardrobe malfunction.” Folks could start to see his underwear as his trunks slid down, which is never something fans want to see. When pointed out, he actually pulled them down a tad more just to flip a big middle finger to social norms. sadly, The Lumberjack John McKenzie was unable to solidify a win at this show, largely because Lewis seems to be smarter than he looks. He capitalized on some early mistakes and was able to somewhat cheat his way into a win. I’m hoping McKenzie has better luck at the next show, because he seems as strong as Paul Bunyan himself, he just happened to face somebody that knew how to exploit his strengths.

Best Mustache in the Business:

Wrex Amadeus has come a long way since his first few matches (that I’ve seen) in Central States Wrestling, and is definitely making a name for himself around here. He wrestled a dominant match against “Wrestling’s Finest” Blaire Dior, who was pretty impressive in his own right, however Amadeus is not above committing a little crime to win matches. This was my first time seeing Dior, and his high-flying arsenal is already pretty impressive. I can only imagine how great he is going to get in the future.

I should Buy Raffle Tickets More Often!

I never really do these raffles because there’s always somebody that dumps $100 into the drawing, and I’d rather buy stuff to support the company if I know I’m unlikely to have a chance. At this show, however, I said, “what the hell” and dropped “a Lincoln” into to raffle and somehow managed to be the grand prize winner of an autographed steel chair! I collect wrestling autographs, and there are a few on here you literally never see, such as “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt!

What a Win!

Try as he might, Luke Langley was no match for Chillicothe‘s hometown hero, The Ice Man! And by try, I mean Luke Langley did every dirty trick in the book to try and retain the Tri-States Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship. First, he outright walked out of the ring and back towards the backstage area, earning a disqualification. Since the belt doesn’t change hands on DQ finishes, he figured he was in the clear. TSW referee Vito Lombardo was there to restart the match, because nobody wants to see a match end like that. Next, Langley attacked the other referee (whose name I do not know) to earn a second disqualification. This enraged TSW management, and finally the match was re-started to be a No Count Out / No DQ match, which was ultimately Langley’s undoing. Feeding off of the energy and hometown pride of everyone in attendance, The Ice Man dug deep and overcame all of the adversity Langley threw his way. 1-2-3 and we have a new champ!

This match eventually became somewhat of a street fight, with a ring bell and a chair coming into play. There were a few moments when it seemed Langley had gained the upper-hand, but in the end, perhaps, he still underestimated just how hungry for a win Ice Man was. Seeing Ice Man in the ring celebrating with his grandson was pretty awesome, and a great way to send the fans home happy. Great main event for a great show!

---

Conclusion:

This was my first experience with Tri-States Wrestling, and overall, it was a great show. I’m not sure I can make a lot of these simply do to distance from where I live, but I will try to make ones that are relatively close by when I can. My son absolutely loved Bobby Joe Black and the main event (especially The Ice Man’s win) so watching him get so excited is well-worth the price of admission. I’ve mentioned before that I love professional wrestling, but go to so many shows lately mostly for him. TSW are a solid family-friendly alternative to a lot of other forms of entertainment out there. For just under twenty bucks, you can get a front-row seat and have an absolute blast.

I still can’t believe I won a prize in the raffle, I rarely win that stuff and seeing my number called was crazy!

---

More Info:

The Tri-States Wrestling Facebook Page HERE

The Tri-States Wrestling YouTube channel HERE

The Tri-States Wrestling Twitter Page is HERE

Their next show is in about a month in Mooresville, MO – I sadly won’t be able to attend (can’t do weekdays), but if you are in the area and free, it might be a fun idea!