Botched Spot

Normally I don’t get out to watch a whole lot of independent wrestling, but when I saw St. Louis Anarchy, a wrestling promotion based right outside of St. Louis, was having a two day show this past weekend I jumped at the chance. I went to the “STL Mega Ticket” show they put on last December with PWCS Wrestling and it was really awesome, so I knew I wanted to see them again, and I’ve also never been to a two night wrestling event before so I wanted to have that experience.

I’m going to be honest and let you know up front that since I’ve only been to one of their other shows and I’m not super familiar with indy wrestling in general, I’m not entirely sure which guys here are regulars or how long everyone’s been wrestling, so if I get anything mixed up I apologize in advance!

Overall both nights had a lot of really great wrestling put on by really talented wrestlers. At a lot of indy wrestling shows I’ve been to in the past there’s a clear division between the people who are there to have fun and the professionals, and all the wrestlers here definitely seemed like professionals.

The real un-illustrated teams of Roscoe Eat Lisa and The Hooligans.

During both nights there was a tag team tournament between the teams of Roscoe Eat Lisa, Viking War Party, Team IOU, and the Hooligans, and all of these guys were insane. I mean they were great, but also really brutal, with one match between the Hooligans and Team IOU breaking down into a “circle of death” where they literally sat in a circle and punched each other until all but one guy was knocked out of their chair. Crazy! There was a lot of funny spots in their matches and good wrestling too. They often sent fans running for cover when brawling outside the ring.

The Hooligans and Team IOU seeing who can survive the most punches to the face!

STL Anarchy also has a great stable of heels called “The Cause” who strut out to the ring in suits holding a book called “The Rules”. Led by Evan Gelistico (who looks like he could be JBL’s nephew), the group wrestled all over the card both nights and instantly got their opponents over with the crowd.

Mr. Gelistico makes his orders loud and clear for The Cause.

I was also really impressed with Jonathan Gresham, who wrestled Gerald James the first night and Davey Vega the second. He’s an amazing technical wrestler! In his match with Davey Vega, the two of them matched each other move for move most of the night, inspiring the audience to chant “chain wrestle forever!” That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that chant! He also threatened to break wrestlers’ fingers both nights, which really sticks with you.

Davey Vega and Jonathan Gresham politely shake hands before trying to break each other’s arms.

Another bright spot on the show was a young wrestler named Ricky Starks, who bragged to the audience multiple times that he had been called by Vince and Paul to come up to NXT, but he postponed it because he was already committed to entertaining the St. Louis Anarchy fans “Then, now, and forever… Forever… Forever….” The second night he even got “the call” in the middle of his match and took it out in the audience. Being a couple of feet away, I want to mention that he wasn’t doing a phoney TV call where he just said “Uh huh, uh huh, yes, got it…” over and over again, but actually had a full on conversation with “Paul” where he begged him to understand that he had an obligation to the St. Louis Anarchy fans.

Ricky Starks takes a call from Paul about NXT.

TJ Perkins (aka Suicide and Manik from his TNA days) was probably the biggest name there and he had an amazing match with the Stl Anarchy Champion, Mat Fitchett on the second night. Perkins also wrestled Davey Vega the first night, but unfortunately we had to leave early and missed it. His match with Fitchett was a variety of technical and high flying moves that brought the normally rowdy crowd to dead silence at times because everyone was so focused on what the two wrestlers were doing in the ring.

Mat Fitchett defends his title against TJ Perkins in the main event.

Honestly, all of the wrestlers were really great, with people like Paco, Jojo, Angelus and many others getting huge reactions from the crowd. Overall the whole show was amazing both nights and I definitely recommend checking St. Louis Anarchy out if you’re around Alton, Illinois during one of their shows. They also have their shows on Smart Mark Video if you can’t make it there in person.

The many awesome stars of “Going Platinum”: Angelus, Mr. Gelistico, Jake Parnell (of the Viking War Party), TJ Perkins, and Jojo Bravo.