A live professional wrestling show in Bethany, MO held on December 15, 2023
I, along with multitude of other professional wrestling fans from the Kansas City area and Northern Missouri, undertook a lengthy journey amid heavy rains and fog to partake in one of the most eagerly awaited holiday wrestling events in Missouri. Tri States Wrestling Rumble for the Rescue Dogs held the promise of providing Christmas-time enjoyment while contributing to a noble cause. Serving as a “spiritual sequel” to last year’s Dog’s Christmas and Dog’s Day events, this show aimed to bring together the titles held by TSW Champion Franco Varga and US Highway Champion The Iceman. As champions, two men entered Bethany, Missouri over the weekend, with only one destined to emerge with the coveted belt.
With this being one of the last two shows for TSW in 2023, I can’t help but look back and appreciate the fact that I took a chance with them via a Facebook ad last spring and randomly made the trip to Chilicothe, Missouri. I love attending their shows if I can, even if they are on the edge of where I’m willing to drive at times. For those who might think all indy wrestling is largely the same, you would be VERY wrong. Of the three companies I frequent, and a few random extra shows here or there, none of them are remotely similar aside from the fact that they are professional wrestling. Even if they share some of the same people, you will get a different experience at each one.
As you will soon see, Tri States Wrestling Rumble for the Rescue Dogs is a fitting climax for an entire year of proessional wrestling, and a jumping off point for 2024. After the dust has settled from these shows I can’t help be excited for what is coming next year!
To read my Preview for this event, click HERE
For More about Tri States Wrestling, check out their Facebook Page HERE, their Twitter (or I guess X) page HERE, or YouTube HERE. TSW is also on Cagematch, HERE. If you are a fan, make sure to drop likes, and reviews, or join their social media pages! For more pro wrestling content, Click HERE.
For information on Against All Odds Animal ResQ, click HERE. TSW generally does charity drives for them, and you can routinely see all sorts of needy animals at their shows.
For more info on the Albany Animal Shelter, click HERE. The see their Facebook Page, click HERE.
If you want other wrestling shows, I 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:
- Dr. Isin won The Rumble for the Rescue Dogs – A 15 man over the top rope battle royale. This match was for the number one contendership for the US Highway Championship.
Entrants were 1) Atlas Armstrong 2) Blaire Dior 3) Wrex Amadeus 4) Kenny KIngsman 5) “The Classic” Warren Adams 6) “Angry” Frank Dunbar 7) The Lumberjack John McKenzie 8) Donnie Peppercricket 9) Tobias Storm 10) Dragon Ninja 11) Cornelius J. Poppington (CJP) 12) “Primetime” Tony Raymos 13) Dr. Isin 14) Mike DeFo 15) Bert Candy - “Primetime” Tony Raymos defeated “Angry” Frank Dunbar
- Bert Candy and Donnie Peppercricket Defeated Cornelius J. Poppington (CJP) and Brauler (as “Santa Brauler”)
- Classic Mustache (Wrex Amadeus and “The Classic” Warren Adams) Defeated Storm Dior (Tobias Storm and Blaire Dior) for the TSW Tag Team Championships
- The Iceman Defeated Dr. Isin to retain the US Highway Championship
- “The Biggest Wrestler Ever” Franco Varga defeated “The Realist” Calvin Aldridge to retain the TSW Championship
Here are some match cards:
DISCLAIMER:
I try to go through most, if not all, of the matches and report on what happened and if the match had any significance to any ongoing feuds. You might think some of my opinions are dumb, or the way I review things is dumb, and that’s OK! We can all like different things, that’s what makes something like wrestling so great! I honestly try to stay positive because there is too much negativity in the overall wrestling community (in my opinion) and we can all do better. That isn’t to say I won’t offer opinions or criticisms, but that will apply when warranted. Remember, cut the B.S. and as the old saying goes, “Just enjoy Wrestling!”
My Thoughts:
One of my favorite match types is a classic Battle Royale, so watching something like The Rumble for the Rescue Dogs was right up my alley. This match alone pretty much solidified this event as a can’t miss for me the moment it was announced. For anyone familiar with how a WWE Royal Rumble match works, you will be right at home as this had largely the same rules. It was a 15-man over-the-top-rope elimination match with the winner (the last man standing) granted the number one contendership for the US Highway Championship. The winner was to face The Iceman later in the show. As with a Royal Rumble, the match started with two entrants with more added to the match in one-minute intervals.
The wrestlers involved in this match were an eclectic mix of both veterans and up-and-coming wrestlers from all over the area. In fact, a relative newcomer to professional wrestling, Kenny Kingsman, was a dominant force throughout the beginning of this match and impressed me throughout. If there was one person to beat, it was honestly him, and it took multiple people to eventually get him out of the ring and onto the floor. His imposing stature and size was only matched by the likes of Bert Candy and Lumber Mack, so if you are a fan of “big meaty men slappin’ meat,” this match was full of it.
After Kingsman’s elimination, it became very apparent that “The Hypothetical Specialist” Dr. Isin trained hard for this very moment and began to clear the ring almost entirely by himself. Dr. Isin is one of those guys that can sometimes come off as fun and silly, but when he needs to be serious, all he needs to do is flip a switch and his “bedside manner” sours slightly. His hardcore determin,ation to win The US Highway Championship, if even for one night, and a chance for the TSW Heavyweight Championship, put all allegiances and any sense of sportsmanship out the window.
Longtime fans will recall that Dr. Isin nearly won The US Highway Championship when facing off against “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt in Chillicothe but fell into Wyatt’s “less than honest wrestling style” and lost the match. For Dr. Isin, this was likely his last hope of clinching that gold for a while and he was not about to let it slip away. In that moment, Dr. Isin definitely became the poster child for “the ends justify the means”.
Throughout the match, fans witnessed some impressive spots, brand new talent that most have not seen before (myself included), and some fun allegiances that I wonder if they will pop up again at some time in the future. You could tell that the crowd was having an absolute blast during this match and all of the children in the audience seemed to be losing their minds. When the dust settled, The Iceman (current holder of The US Highway Championship), had been sitting at ringside hanging out with kids in the audience and came out to congratulate Dr. Isin for his win. It wasn’t all smiles and rainbows though, as The Iceman warned him of the uphill battle he was about to face later in the night. “The Realist” Calvin Aldridge and “The Biggest Wrestler Ever” Franco Varga eventually came out to initiate a four-person stare-down.
One of the four men was going to leave this weekend the NEW Tri-States Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, and you could tell every single person was hungry for that win. This was an awesome way to start the show, and if my son is to believe, it was the most fun match of the night.
Rumble for the Rescue Dogs was the professional wrestling debut of “Primetime” Tony Raymos, who faced the veteran “Angry” Frank Dunbar for tonight’s show. I’m not sure how he drew such a short straw because Dunbar is not a man to mess with. He’s not called “Angry” for no reason at all.
Raymos definitely faced an uphill battle early on because Frank Dunbar it’s not the kind of guy that’s going to sit back and let some new upstart roll into his ring and try to make a name for himself. Dunbar relentlessly mocked Raymos at every turn – poking fun at his athletic attire, sun tape under his eyes, and his lack of experience in the ring. Unfortunately for Dunbar, this arrogance would be his ultimate undoing as Raymos was able to tap into the power given to him from the crowd and somehow pull out a win on his very first match!
This was absolutely surprising to me because one usually does not see somebody immediately get a win right off the bat, but “Primetime” Tony Raymos might just be one of the biggest surprise upstarts of the year! The crowd was behind him throughout the match and went absolutely nuts when he won. I see a bright future ahead of “Primetime” Tony Raymos, and can’t wait to see what he does in the future.
Somehow or another, Bert Candy and Donnie Peppercricket managed to upset somebody in the back and end up booked to face none other than Santa Claus himself, better known as Brauler, and Cornelius J Poppington (CJP). For two men that try their hardest to bring joy and happiness to children in the crowd, this had to be heartbreaking for them. As the crowd shouted thundering chants of “Naughty List! Naughty List! Naughty List!”, Candy and Peppercricket were in a tough spot.
If they won, of course, they would get more money and go home very happy knowing that they did a good job as professional wrestlers, however, Brauler Claus established that that would be a one way ticket to being on Santa’s Naughty List if they did. This would inevitably ruin Christmas for both men and likely fill their house with bags of coal or something. That is not exactly how I would like to spend my holiday! With that predicament in mind, both men did their best to not let the status of Mr. Brauler Claus cloud their ability to put on a great match and they eventually did get that win, pinning CJP to the mat.
It was at this time, that Cornelius J Poppington, who previously came into the match as if he was best friends with Mr. Claus, turned on his shortly-lived ally and started ranting about how much he hated Christmas and went into some conspiracy theory about Santa shopping at the Dollar Store (or maybe he was Dollar General Santa?) or something (I had a hard time hearing). It was an absolutely wild moment and went to show that CJP does not handle losses very well. Brauler Claus and CJP will be facing off against each other in a match for night two of Rumble for the Rescue Dogs which ought to be awesome! CJP can’t be allowed to try to rob Christmas spirit from all the children in the audience, and the “big man in the red suit” (no, not Kane) is just the right man to set everything straight!
I want to start this section out by pointing out that Wrex Amadeus is a despicable man, one that was too cheap to afford his own bag of Doritos, and felt it necessary to steal some from yours truly and his son at the show! This was an outrage, and my son assured me that at some point Wrex Amadeus is going to find himself paired up against his finest Nerf gun for eventual retribution. If you are reading this Wrex, be prepared it’s going to happen sometime!
With that out of the way, not only did this match start out with a brazen daytime robbery of the snack kind, but attempted fraud! Both “Classic” Warren Adams and Wrex Amadeus pilfered some of the innocent rescue puppies from the charity workers and began attempting to auction them off for their own benefit. Adams attempted to fleece around $5000 dollars per puppy which seems like a bit much. Thankfully, none of these puppies got harmed in this debacle, and your TSW Tag Team Champions, Blaire Dior and Tobias Storm got the show back on track, silencing the two menaces in the ring.
Storm Dior came at Classic Mustache with an impressive barrage of both high-flying and technical moves, ultimately making it appear as if they pretty much had this in the bag. Not to besmirch Amadeus and Adams in any way, but this was their first time working as a tag team and it’s always a gamble as to whether that’s gonna work out or not. Unfortunately for your champions, they did not think of one eventuality through, and that was that both Adams and Amadeus are shameless and very much willing to bend the rules slightly to achieve their goals.
That is exactly what happened, when one of the TSW Tag Team Championship belts became a weapon while the referee was looking the other way. This resulted in a tainted pin and new champions much to the chagrin of everyone in the audience. Everyone yelling about them cheating did nothing to phase your new TSW Tag Team Champions. In fact, it seemed to feed their arrogance somehow. Later on, we found out that there would be a rematch on December 16th, Night Two of Rumble for the Rescue Dogs. Storm Dior were very upset and ready to do whatever they could to get their belts back!
I mentioned before that Dr. Isin was willing to do absolutely anything to win gold at this show, and this US Highway Championship match between himself and The Iceman signified that eagerness very well. The match itself was a very hard-fought and technically sound affair with The Iceman and Dr. Isin staying evenly matched. Dr. Isin started sprinkling little hints of desperation here and there as he tired out. Remember, Dr. Isin wrestled a match earlier in the night to get this far and anybody would be tired in that situation. All of the sudden, he was able to pull it off! He pinned The Iceman 1-2-3 with one HUGE caveat – The Iceman’s foot was on the rope. When the referee realized this, he had to pull the US Highway Championship from Dr. Isin’s hands and restart the match, something that took Dr. Isin off guard.
The Iceman was able to hit his stunner variation and roll him up for the win, retaining his US Highway Championship. As you can imagine, Dr. Isin was NOT happy. He threw a tantrum in the ring and gave the crowd a look signifying that this wasn’t over. I have a feeling this is not the last we’ll see of “The Hypothetical Specialist” this weekend.
“The Realist” Calvin Aldridge is a former KCXW Champion, and exactly the sort of man with the credentials to face off against “The BIggest Wrestler Ever” Franco Varga. Calvin Aldridge used his quickness and high-flying ability to initially cause all sorts of issues for Varga. However, an attack-pattern like that is only sustainable for a short period of time. Varga is built like a wrecking ball, and eventually began to chip away at Aldridge‘s defenses until he fell victim to his cannonball and Falcon Arrow. Remember, NOBODY kicks out of the Falcon Arrow. 1-2-3 and that was that. Hopefully we see Calvin Aldridge in TSW again, he did a hell of a job.
Once the match was over, and Varga’s msusic was playing, an odd thing happened. The Iceman, usually a becon of good sportsmanship in TSW, interupted the post-match celebration to menacingly stare his future opponent down. This threw Varga for a loop, he was not used to having The Iceman stoop to petty intimidation tactics, and it seemed out of character for him. It goes to show just how important the unified TSW Heavyweight Championship is to everyone on the roster, and especially The Iceman. The main event for Night Two of Rumble for the Rescue Dogs is set and will be insane. It is going to be a Christmas Street Fight, which is familiar territory to The Iceman as he battled in a similar match last year. This epic feud that has been strewing all year is about to come to a close, and I for one am very excited!
Conclusion:
Tri States Wrestling – Rumble for the Rescue Dogs – Night One was an awesome show, and despite the questionable weather getting there, it was well worth the drive for me. For this being one half of a two-day event, everything stood on its own well and made sense. For those attending Night Two, I’m sure it will be even better. Tri States Wrestling always puts on solid family-friendly wrestling shows that are both affordable and fun, and this was no exception! Stay tuned for my follow-up to this very soon!
Check out this video with more of my pics!
