GLEN CARBON – The St. Louis area's great tradition of pro wrestling stopped by The Sports Academy in Glen Carbon Saturday night for a Dynamo Pro Wrestling card took place before an enthusiastic audience.
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Seven bouts, including one for the Dynamo Pro tag-team championship, were staged that included several of the promotion's top performers.
One of the performers was “The Cowboy” Ric Maverick, who won his bout. “It was a lifelong love that I've had,” Maverick said. “I started going to the gym, started going to some shows, asking guys how to get into it, what do I do and started training.
“I came from Arizona to St. Louis, which is pretty much the Mecca of pro wrestling – if you can make it in St. Louis, you can make it anywhere.”
The St. Louis area's reputation in pro wrestling circles is still solid, thanks to the efforts of the late Sam Muchnick and his St. Louis Wrestling Club promotion; his organization and the still fondly-remembered local television program, “Wrestling at the Chase”, remains the gold standard when it comes to wrestling despite the many changes in the wrestling business in the past three decades.
“The way they talk about Mr. Muchnick – if you don't take your hat off for him, you don't know the sport,” Maverick said.
One of the younger wrestlers in the promotion, CJ Shine, has been with Dynamo Pro for a year and a half. “I started watching (World Wrestling Entertainment) when I was 6,” Shine said, “and that's how I got into (wrestling), just by watching it.
“It really means a lot to me, especially when I found out about six years ago that my great-great uncle was The Masked Marvel; I was kind of like 'no wonder I like this'. It's in my blood going back a couple of generations, but I thought it was pretty awesome.”
Brandon Espinosa opened the card with a win over Paco before Maverick defeated “The Primal Prodigy” Matt Kenway in the night's second bout. In the evening's third match, “The Alternative” Ozzie Gallagher scored a win over Jackal before The Snitch (accompanied by Sophie Darling) defeated Shine.
Mike Outlaw won the first bout after intermission over Midnight Society member Billy McNeil, who was accompanied to the ring by “Fantastic” CJ McManus and fellow Midnight Society member Jayson Khaos; Khaos was defeated in the semi-final match by “The Mind of Destruction” Makaze.
The card ended with the Dynamo Pro tag-team title being retained by High Level Enterprise with a win over The Professionals.
Dynamo Pro Wrestling will have a card at 8 p.m. Friday at Collinsville's Gateway Convention Center in connection with NatsuCon, a convention focusing on Japanese pop culture and anime that will also be held at the same time at the center. Tickets are on sale now for $10, with admission at the door being $12. For more information on Dynamo Pro Wrestling, visit www.dynamoprowrestling.com or visit the promotion's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DynamoPro; you can also follow Dynamo's Twitter feed at @dynamopro for more information.
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