Hey everyone! It’s time to get back to the normal format after I took my week off and had to marathon through tons of extra episodes. This series is designed to highlight all of the hard work that local wrestling companies put in on a weekly basis, especially with weekly episodes. Every week, I plan to look for about 4-5 episodes of various wrestling shows from this area and do small micro-reviews of what happens. As with my larger reviews, I’m not as much a wrestling critic as I am a historian chronicling what happens on any given show, and how it fits in with that company’s ongoing storylines.
On some of these I am jumping in randomly, likely in the middle of various storylines, so bear with me as I struggle to make sense of what is happening! I will try my best to explain what’s happening and bring everyone, including myself, up to speed. If I’m missing anything, feel free to kick me some links! I’m trying not to go too wild, but I will cover some stuff slightly outside of the area I would be willing to drive to for live shows, so you’ll likely see some stuff I’ve never talked about on here!
SSW Tie-Up – July 19, 2024
Filmed in Jefferson, City MO
The Card:
- Tobias Storm defeated “The Natural” Atlas Armstrong by pinfall
- “Wrestling’s Finest” Blaire Dior defeated Frodo The Ghost – FTG by DQ
- Austin Mulitalo
For my first episode of the week, we’re heading over to Jefferson City, Missouri with Show Me State Wrestling. While SSW is slightly outside of my usual drive distance, I have thought about doing one of their shows at some point, so stay tuned for that! First up was a match between Tobias Storm and “The Natural” Atlas Armstrong, which promised to be a real banger. Both of these guys are solid workers in the ring and always put on great matches no matter where I’ve seen them. I was, however, somewhat annoyed to see how Tobias carries himself in Central Missouri. Tobias has started to carry around a water bottle, which we have already witnessed being used as a weapon on previous occasions, and as a way to mess with kids in the crowd. It not only makes him slippery if somebody tries to grab him but becomes a huge distraction when the referee is wasting time telling him not to touch it. Who even knows if that’s water in there!? I wonder if the officials have checked that out!
Atlas put in a good effort, easily outclassing Tobias with his speed and the reach of his strikes, but Tobias eventually got the best of him – 1-2-3 and Tobias Storm takes it away. While not a clean victory, as it appeared Tobias may have poked Atlas in the eye before his big finishing move, one can’t argue that he is not worthy of the moniker, “The Pound for Pound strongest man in SSW.” Despite his comparative size to some other guys, the dude is a monster when it comes to raw strength, and Atlas definitely found that out.
Next up was unfortunately an appearance by one of the most insufferable men wrestling in all of Central Missouri – Frodo the Ghost, or FTG. Apparently, he is now the leader of a group called “The Syndicate”, and is following up his big announcement from the end of the Fulton, Missouri show wherein he basically put the entire locker room on notice, by reestablishing that challenge. He was behind the big attack against Nothin’ Neater Derek Teter perpetrated by the O’Neal Brothers. He specifically called out Teter on this show, who is at least as big as two Frodos, so that really doesn’t seem like a good idea to me! Who knows what this guy is up to or what he has planned, because he is, so far, being quite vague about what is happening.
FTG was scheduled for a match against “Wrestling’s Finest” Blaire Dior, which is a bit of a rematch from the Fulton show. In that particular match, Frodo did all sorts of things like choking Blaire on the ropes, so one would hope that a bit of retribution would be at hand. The commentary points out that on paper Blaire Dior should be the easy winner. He has superior athletic ability, has the crowd behind him, and doesn’t waste time with the sort of nonsense FTG is always doing, but FTG has one easy game-changing thing over Mr. Dior – his penchant for bending the rules.
This match had some truly intense moments such as a thunderous back-and-forth of chest chops and forearm shots that were straight out of a Strong Style match. Just when the fans thought Blaire was about to win, the Syndicate’s own O’Neal Brothers came out and ruined the match in an attempt to hurt Blaire for his trouble. Luckily, Derek ran out for the save, signaling that this feud with FTG and his goons was far from over. It will be interesting to see what happens from here.
The final segment of the show included an appearance by “Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo, who is one of the finalists for the Show Me State Heavyweight Championship. Austin announced that he had no plans to wrestle until his big match and was about to rest and train up. SSW owner Tez Wyatt was not about that in the slightest. He told Mulitalo that he would be the special guest referee for his future opponent, El Diablo, in a match later that night. As you can imagine, Austin was not thrilled.
Images courtesy of the broadcast
NBW Squared Circle – Season 3 Episode 15 – “Austin in the Outfield” From Macks Creek, MO
The Card:
- The Wranglers (Bobby Joe Black and Johnnie Jo Black) defeated the team of “The Outlaw” Tyler Bodine and Glenn Williams by pinfall
- “The Silverback” Big Joe Helms (w/ Lady Gun) Defeated “The Iron Pitbull” Kenny Kingston
- “Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo Defeated “The Top Gun” Brandon Barretta – retaining his NBW United States Championship
The next show I’m featuring on this edition of my Weekly Local Wrestling Roundup is this week’s episode of New Breed Wrestling Squared Circle, containing another segment of their show from Macks, Creek Missouri at the Ballparks National Field. The first match was a tag team bout between The Wranglers (Bobby Joe Black and Johnnie Jo Black) against the team of “The Outlaw” Tyler Bodine and Glenn Williams. While I don’t know much about Mr. Williams, the rest of this match was every bit of a Country boy battle, with two real hosses coming face-to-face with a couple of Kansas farmhands. The Wranglers are always fan favorites, and I have had the pleasure of writing about them a lot this past year, so I was happy to see them on here. I’m sure it was a big honor to be facing one-half of the tag-team champions in Tyler Bodine, especially with what happens!
For a lot of this match, both Bodine and Williams were beating the tar out of Johnnie Jo, who is the ultimate underdog due to his size and comparable lack of experience. That said, he has a TON of heart, and that can easily make up for a lot of shortcomings. As I mentioned before, this was my first-time seeing Glenn Williams, and the dude is a beast, has the eyes of a Wildman, and his shots seem very painful. He was like an apex predator preying on Johnnie Jo, and for a time I was worried we’d see a knockout or something. All of a sudden, a near miracle happened when Johnnie Jo got the win with a huge drop kick from the second rope. I can’t help but notice that the Wranglers had a tad bit more aggression, if not a harder edge to them at this show. It’s an interesting development for sure.
Next up was a match between “The Silverback” Big Joe Helms (w/ Lady Gun) and “The Iron Pitbull” Kenny Kingston. Helms has been having “a dispute” with the various members of System Of Brutality ($OB), so facing off with their newest recruit, The Iron Pitbull, was a good warm-up for his eventual match against Nothin’ Neater Derek Teter in Sedalia. Both Helms and Kingston are huge men; this was a real battle of the behemoths. Every slam shook the ring, and every hit looked like the winning hit in a prize fight. While the fans seemed torn, with occasional dog bark chants from the kids in attendance, the majority of the crowd was firmly with Helms and cheered him onto a somewhat quick victory.
The final match for this show was the pairing of “Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo and “The Top Gun” Brandon Barretta. Brandon is usually a tag team guy tearing up the St. Louis area, but he has worked KC in Trailblazer Championship Wrestling, so I have seen him perform live. This was a true test, for me, to see if I preferred him here versus tag-teams. To start things off, the crowd humorously was not having Mulitalo, despite him not doing anything wrong. Perhaps it was the fact that Barretta impressed the kids from the get-go, or Austin’s more flamboyant attire gave the wrong impression about his temperament, but either way it was pretty funny. The Commentary seemed to think it was because of his mean streak recently, which I will admit has confused fans a bit. At the end of the match, everything built up to both men trading roll-ups and stacking a series of near falls, but Austin was finally able to get enough leverage to get the win. This made the kids furious, and Austin was on his way to less hostile territory.
Images courtesy of the broadcast
Mid-States Wrestling – Season 2, Episode 18
The Card:
- “Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo (w/Stephen E) defeated “Your Girlfriend’s Favorite Wrestler” Johnny Lightning by pinfall
- “The Anomaly” Kelsey Magnolia defeated “The Marionette” Noelle by pinfall
Mid-States Wrestling is actually out of Harrison, Arkansas, but does shows in places around here like St. Joseph, Missouri and employs a LOT of KC-area talent, so I follow them when I can. They have a diverse roster and there are some folks from further south that I am not familiar with, so it’s fun to see new folks. This episode was comprised of two matches, “Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo (w/Stephen E) versus “Your Girlfriend’s Favorite Wrestler” Johnny Lightning, and “The Anomaly” Kelsey Magnolia against “The Marionette” Noelle.
The first matchup was not a championship match, so Mulitalo’s MSW Missouri Heavyweight Championship was not on the line. I have, of course seen Mulitalo a LOT, he’s even on this list a few times, but I am far less familiar with Lightning, and have only seen him on a few episodes of this show. I was impressed with how much ring-awareness Johnny Lightning had, often doing things like faking Austin out then doing the opposite sort of move everyone was expecting. He’s definitely flamboyant, and has a fun wrestling style. Johnny Lightning showed up to the ring dressed like what I would imagine a Cowboy version of Bret Hart would look like, a fact that led Mulitalo to endlessly compare him to a Barbie doll. I guess he was less impressed than I was about his style. In the end, Mulitalo was too much for Mr. Lightning and got the win.
Next up was a showdown between two ladies that apparently have a mysterious past together. Magnolia stated that she used to know her opponent well, and is concerned for her former acquaintance and what she has become. I am not familiar with Noelle, but from her promo, she definitely seems a bit unhinged. She is smeared with crudely drawn clown make-up, has a notable twitch, and screamed at everyone in the crowd when walking in. The Commentary pointed out that Noelle has been stalking Kelsey, a fact that should make her pretty upset, I’m sure.
Both women have similar body types, notably both are tall and slender, so it’s not one like has any sort of advantage in that regard. The place I could see a definite advantage, however, was mentally with Noelle definitely having an edge due to her unpredictability and psychological manipulation she exudes due to her off-putting personality. Kelsey seems pretty strong-willed, but when a raving lunatic is yelling at you, I’d imagine it’s hard to do what you need to do in order to be successful. Noelle used the ropes to her advantage constantly, slamming Kelsey into them, doing moves against them, or choking her with them. The referee looked as if he had a hell of a time keeping up with that and I’m sure constantly counting to five was annoying. For a long time it looked as if Noelle would win, as it was more-or-less like a cat playing with a wounded mouse. She spent way to much time messing around and allowed Kelsey to string together a series of big suplexes and steal the win.
Images courtesy of the broadcast
So there you have it! Stay tuned for next time, and hopefully the format stays largely the same as this article. Like I said, hit me up if there is something I should be watching, I’d be happy to add it to my rotation! Stay tuned this week as I hope to get both of my recent live show reviews up before the end of the weekend.