Hey all!! Jared back at ya and man have I come back with a purpose this time!! Its time to talk about Cape Championship Wrestling!! Now, I’ll have a bigger post that I’ll put up later with a bit more detail about CCW. If you want more information on your own time before I get around to telling you about it, head on over to http://www.capewrestling.com or Like them on Facebook.
I can talk all day about CCW and at some point, I’m going to! But today is focused. Laser focused with pinpoint accuracy! Well…I don’t know that we’ll go that far because, let’s be serious, there’s NOTHING about me that is 100% accurate. I’m human after all, and a moderately lazy one at that. However, today comes along at the right time to do so. Its my Year End Review of CCW! With 2016 days away from finally being over (which, I think we can all agree has been a pretty rough year all around) and a fresh start on the way, I thought it was a great time to take a chance back to reflect on a great first year of action in Cape Championship Wrestling.
CCW officially fired out of the chamber in July at the Osage Center right here in Cape Girardeau, with a monthly show every month after except for this month, as to allow for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. During my Year End review here, I’m going to talk about my favorite match from each card, then I’m going to pick my favorite match of the year, my favorite talent of the year and then talk about hopes, thoughts and predictions for 2017.
The first card in July featured a 3 match tournament for the CCW belt, which featured talent such as “Sexy” Sarge O’Riley vs Brandon Barbwire and Billy Hills vs Jason Vaughn. We saw the debut of the Pinnacle, being lead by the boisterous (is that too much credit?) Jeff O’Dell, and were swerved in the end, as Jeff O’Dell formed his group with Sarge, Billy Hills, Sweet Sarah Summers and, unexpectedly, Brandon Barbwire, who was crowned the very first CCW champion. Also that night, we had Davey Vega vs Hollis Giroux, Jake Dirden vs Genesis and Lil Bit vs Diamond Doll. This night got the wheels turning and got the CCW crowd familiarized with the talent that would be coming in. Myself, being a big Jake Dirden fan, was beyond ecstatic that he was going to be a part of CCW. I was also very excited to see Davey Vega, Billy Hills and Jason Vaughn. At the end of the night, I was enjoying everyone, both new to me and those I was familiar with! CCW far exceeded my expectations and, even though I already knew that I would support everything they would do, this first show cemented that with me. Looking back at that show, it really is hard for me to pick a favorite match. I loved the Davey vs Hollis match. I really enjoyed the story telling in the matches with Brandon Barbwire, too. So as I think on it now, I think the match with Brandon Barbwire and Billy Hills in the finals of the CCW Title Tournament will be my match of the night for the debut CCW show.
Up next was probably my favorite card of the year for CCW and that was the August show, CCW Homecoming at the AC Brase Arena Building. As a side note, if you get a chance to check out a show at the Arena Building, please do. It has such a vintage, old school feel about it. In fact, Elvis played concerts there, Metallica played live in the 80’s with Cliff Burton, even the Poffo family brought their ICW shows to the Arena Building in the 80’s, featuring Randy “Macho Man” Savage prior to his signing with the then WWF. This show featured my favorite star of the independent scenes, Ricochet, the Paducah, Kentucky native taking on a veteran of the Mid South wrestling scene, Austin Lane, the Best of the Best. We also saw CCW debuts of “Tornado” Tony Kozina, CJ Shine, BT Daramola, Dale Wylde and the Missouri Wrestling Revival Missouri Champion Brandon Espinosa. Obviously, my favorite match of that night was Ricochet vs Austin Lane. That night, I got to meet Ricochet (which, truthfully, it wasn’t the first time as I met him several years ago prior to him becoming the name that he is now) and I also became a fan of Austin Lane. Wow that was quite a match. However, I do have to talk about Billy Hills vs Espy as that was truly a great match in itself with a lot of dramatic sequences. The women, Lil Bit and Diamond Doll, also had one of their best matches in CCW that night as well. And, I can’t go without mentioning the story telling involved with Jake Dirden and Brandon Barbwire in that championship match. So with that second card, we were beginning to see just how great CCW as going to be.
Come September, CCW moved back over to the Osage Center in a card called Best of the Best, as we were treated to Austin Lane vs Brandon Barbwire in a dual stipulation match. If Austin won, he would become the number one contender to the CCW title. However, if Brandon won, he would earn the right to Austin Lane’s nickname the Best of the Best (and, just so Brandon remembers, Austin is from rope to rope, pillar to post the BEST OF THE BEST). Austin Lane also had some help in his corner as one of the craziest people to ever step foot in a ring, PSYCHO, made his CCW debut. Also, we witnessed what became the most important debut in CCW’s short history…THE DEBUT OF BLASTER!!! That alone was worth the price of admission! This night had several great matches. The Diamond Doll vs Lil Bit “I Quit” match was VERY intense, many times my wife and I were gasping with a “holy crap” feel as they just tore into each other. Brandon and Austin exceeded the expectations I had placed on that match, as it offered the full spectrum of entertainment in the ring from funny spots, to high flying moments, to some very dramatic moments. It was a wonderfully done match from the pre-match build up all the way to the final bell. However, the match that night that I’ll pick as the best match was Brandon Espinosa vs Ace Hawkins for the MWR Missouri Championship. Wow, is really all I can say. Two former tag partners putting on one heck of a match for that strap, featuring a plethora (do you even know what a plethora is?) of 2.99999 counts, high flying, hard hitting action. I could do nothing more than stand and applaud afterward as the crowd, fittingly, gave them multiple “this is awesome” chants. Well deserved!
For October, CCW went on the road for the first time to Chaffee, Missouri, home of the Red Devils, for the Red Devil’s Revenge show! This was a fun night, as we had James Ellsworth, yes the WWE superstar, live in the building against Tony Kozina! CJ Shine and Brandon Espinosa squared off in a hard hitting match, we saw the debut of THE Cody Wilson in a triple threat with Hollis Giroux and Jake Dirden, the in-ring debut of Ms Sweet Sarah Summers, the CCW debut of Marni Gras, a great title match with Brandon Barbwire and Austin Lane, and a gritty street fight grudge match with Jason Vaughn and Farmer Billy Hills. Three matches stand out to me on this one, as the MWR Title match with Espy and CJ Shine was a GREAT match to get the night started and was probably the best match I’ve seen CJ Shine in so far. I did feel bad for him, though, as Espy can chop a man’s chest off. Secondly, the title match was simply amazing. The War Child motorcycle group was there to make sure that The Pinnacle wasn’t going to interfere in this match, which was a great addition to that title match. However, the match of the night for me that night was Farmer Billy Hills vs Jason Vaughn. This stemmed from an incident in the summer where Billy Hills (although he won’t admit to doing this) RAN OVER Jason Vaughn in his pick up truck. So these two brutes had it out, beating each other with chairs, kendo sticks, tables, toy ponies (true story, bro) and so much more. The action spilled out of the ring many times, ultimately ending in ring with Jason getting the W and putting an end to this intense feud.
The last show of the year for CCW featured another debut, as CCW debuted in Delta, Missouri for Knockout November! Brandon Barbwire and Hollis Giroux were set to main event with a title match, along with Lil Bit and Sarah Summers squaring off, Austin Lane and Billy Hills in a #1 contenders match, a 4 on 4 Team CCW vs Team Pinnacle match, as well as talk of a mystery opponent, picked by Jeff O’Dell, for Jason Vaughn. However, injuries plagued this card as not only Austin Lane was hurt, but the CCW gold jewel himself, Brandon Barbwire, was ruled out of commission due to some sort of intense training injury. He seemed fine by me. But who am I to really know what happened, right? However, we were still treated to a great show as another Mid South legend, Dell Tucker, made his CCW debut. In the kick off match, another young talent from Kansas City, Phoenix, took on THE Cody Wilson in just an amazing match and a great debut by Phoenix. I had a chance to talk with the young man at intermission and I do hope to see him again in the future. Jeff O’Dell had two big secrets up his sleeve. His mystery opponent for Jason Vaughn was D’Mone, a beast out of Memphis who is built like a brick wall and athletic as he was strong. Also, unbeknownst to us, JEFF O’DELL BROUGHT BACK BLASTER!! Blaster came out to take on Dell Tucker and was quickly dispatched, then stuck around as part of the Pinnacle vs CCW 4v4 match. With this match, the winning team would be able to select their stipulation for the first card of 2017 in January. In the end, team CCW won as Lil Bit pinned Farmer Billy Hills in a surprising upset, resulting in CCW selection the STEEL CAGE as their stipulation for the show in January. Hands down, Phoenix and Cody Wilson had the match of the night for me, but if I picked it #1, 1B would be the 4 vs 4 tag match between CCW and The Pinnacle, setting up January’s show.
So, overall, my match of the year for CCW is going to Ricochet vs Austin Lane. But so many great matches happened that I talked about in my ramblings up there. CCW really came out of the gate swinging from their first show and I have to really hand it to Ken Murphy, Jason Wells, Lee Montgomery, Adam Rister and Double H for delivering such a great product in 2016. All of that action only happened in four months!! Can you imagine what 2017 has in store?
Speaking of 2017….
January is firing off hard and heavy with the return to the AC Brase Arena. Look at that card! Just look at it!! WOW!!! 2017 will be a banner year for wrestling here in Cape Girardeau, with talks of a HUGE show coming up in April that will coincide with the annual Cape Comic Con, which is also put on and promoted by Ken Murphy. This annual event usually features current/former wrestling talents and this year, it sounds like CCW’s April show will be their Wrestlemania equivalent with a lot of hype already surrounding it. So, if you haven’t had a chance to go to a show and are a wrestling fan, get your tickets now!! And, be sure to check out some of these great links to keep updated on everything CCW!
http://www.podzilla1985.com/ (click on the Pro Wrestling Unscripted shows)
http://www.capewrestling.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CapeChampionshipWrestling/
https://missouriwrestlingrevival.com/
http://www.my123cents.com/
http://jitterymonkey.com/category/my123cents/
http://www.ontheropesnetwork.com/
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