GLCW Blizzard Brawl VI – December 4th, 2010

I didn't take notes this year so it's possible I'll misremember something.

Beginning of the Show Chatter:

A Proclamation from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is read, praising promoter Dave Herro.
Dave acknowledges we tend to boo ring announcer Jeff Lynne but defends his friend for all the good he's done in the past for GLCW and getting Blizzard Brawl off the ground six years ago. Dave calls him 'Capable' Jeff Lynne.
Armando Alejandro Estrada returns, reminds us that he retired last Blizzard Brawl, and then informs us that he's here to unretire. Somehow he refrains from making a Brett Farve joke. He promises something big later in the show in his regained position as Commissioner.
This all took time but doesn't last forever. It didn't feel as long as some opens in the past.


Match One: Trios Match – Dysfunction, Tony Scarponi (sp?), and Chase McCoy vs 'El Vato' Jose Guerrero, Billy Goat, and El Grande Something or Other

Dysfunction, Tony, and Chase come out playing three distinct heels: Dysfunction loud and obnoxious, Tony quiet and dismissive, and Chase intense with outbursts of anger.
'El Vato', looking a bit out of shape, had a problem or two with some moves, but generally did fine, mostly playing Ricky Morton (spent time as a face being beat up by the bad guys during a tag match). 'Billy Goat', wore a goat mask and worked that gimmick but butting his head into people and such. I guessed it was local worker Bobby Valentino and was later told I was right. He also played Ricky Morton for awhile. I thought he was the best worker on his team. El Grande Whatever was just a fat guy in a mask.
Hot fun opener to get the crowd going and it worked. All three faces pinned the heels at once.

Match Two: Matt Longtime vs Scotty Too Hotty

Crowd, as normal, are pro-Scotty. We, as normal, were pro-Longtime. Our 'Heel Corner' fully fired up at this point as the guys around us turned out to have a similar attitude to us. We also discovered that a dozen kids does not equal One Herman. A rest hold spot ran longer than it may have been planned for as these kids started cheering for Scotty and our Mr. Herman shouted over them, killing the growing face heat and silencing the kids. After a minute or two the crowd realized they needed to cheer for Scotty in order for things to progress and did. While I missed seeing it, apparently Scotty grabbed Longtime's tights to get the win.
Scotty celebrated the win with the owner's son Kal who'd accompanied him to the ring but Longtime returned for revenge. He knocked Scotty down to the ring and began to chase Kal. We chanted 'Hurt the Kid' which just felt wrong and clearly would have been anywhere but in wrestling. Scotty recovered to save him and was able to dance and pose with Kal.

Match Three: Ego Fantastico vs Silas Young vs the Hurricane

Silas played a grumpy heel, doing his best to not participate at first so Hurricane could mock him. Ego (announced as being from Mexico City, Wisconsin, also wearing a mask) and Hurricane were faces but willing to wrestle each other. Ego over-rotated on a couple of his flips but these were minor flubs in an excellent match. Hot match filled with good spots and a decent story. I wish I had more to say about this match but it just clicked and worked. My Best Match of the Night.

Brief Hall of Fame moment:

Daemon Nelson gave a little speech inducting them into the PWR (Pro Wrestling Report) Hall of Fame. He kept dragging the crowd into his thoughts as if he spoke for us all. He didn't say 'I think we'd all agree...' but rather 'all of us here say...' or words more to that effect. While I like Demolition a lot and think they're a great tag-team but 'Best Ever' is a bit of a stretch. I quickly rattled off a half-dozen tag-teams that I'd declare as better in some way, no offense meant to Demolition. I also thought taking the opportunity to complain about the state of tag-team wrestling in a company that Demolition hasn't worked for in nearly 20 years was similarly pointless to me. Still, it was Daemon's moment to say what he wanted.

Match Four: Tag-Team Championship Match: Demolition (champ) vs the Urban Assault Team w/manager Angel Armoni vs Electric Eric Freedom and Psychotic Someone or Other w/ manager Joey Eastman vs 'The Dream Team' Brutus Beefcake and Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine

I might have the managers associated with the wrong teams. Greg Valentine needed some help getting into the ring. Brother Bruti had a ring in each nipple. The match was announced as a 'fatal four way' which should mean that the first pinfall would win the match but it played out as an elimination match. The Urban Assault Team was eliminated by Demolition. Freedom and Psychotic were eliminated by Zodiac and Hammer. The Demos then pinned Disciple and Valentine to retain their belts. This was a good fun match, if busy, especially considering the average age in the ring was probably about 50.

Intermission.

During intermission our Mr. Herman discovered that an old high school chum is a promoter on the South Side. While we talked to him, Angel Armoni approached to say hi and we got to interact with him. Funny guy.

Match Five: Ladies Championship Match: Traci Brooks vs ODB vs Sarena vs Mike Some Radio Guy (champ)

Mike Some Radio Guy makes sexist remarks and brings out an actual lady wrestler (Something Cruz I think) to represent him in the match. Women wrestling over a women's belt; what a concept! Traci and ODB get eliminated. Some Radio Guy returns to take over, directing his representative to go make him a sandwich while he takes care of business. She slugs him low and leaves him. Sarena spears him and gets the pin. She has an emotional moment over the belt upon receiving it. Nice match with good action and some comedy but not as comedic as some previous GLCW Ladies matches.

Match Six: GLCW Heavyweight Championship: Rhino vs Al Snow (champ)

Armando Alejandro Estrada appears to announce himself the number 1 contender to the belt. Rhino attacks Al Snow outside the ring with a chair before the match, laying him out. Al gets rolled into the ring and Estrada forces the referee to start the match and count the fall. He does and Rhino wins.
This is where the show gets derailed. Small things can add up and make a mess of good intentions. While the crowd was confused by this turn of events, Rhino grabs a microphone and says... something. The mic doesn't work and, even though we weren't that far back, I couldn't hear a thing he said. We began chanting 'What?' trying to get his attention but it didn't work. No one explains what happened but a minute or so later Al manages to roll Rhino up and Al is announced as the winner of the second fall. The match continues.
The match continues well enough but I got the feeling that the crowd is still largely lost and confused. Al manages to win the match and 'Capable' Jeff Lynne announces the end of the second fall again before quickly and unclimatically announcing the match is over and Al won. The combination of the confusion with this mistake triggered a rather energetic from the crowd, at least from our section. We immediately and lustily booed.
Estrada attacks Al, knocking him out, pins him, and becomes Champ. This is one step too far. Security and Medical personnel come out to check on Al and carry him from the ring. When we should have been applauding Al or concerned for him, we were too busy griping about the way things didn't come together. We were disappointed.

Match Seven: Mr. Anderson vs Matt Hardy

Ken Anderson comes to the ring wearing an Aaron Rodgers Packer jersey (earlier he was wearing a Clay Matthews throwback jersey) and explains he can't wrestle, blaming it on his current employers and not a recent chairshot to the head that went wrong and left him with a concussion. He removes his jersey to reveal a referee shirt. The crowd warms to the local boy coming home.

Match Seven: Shawn Davari vs Matt Hardy

Davari comes out with a rant that quickly gets the crowd hating him. Matt Hardy is easily the face once he emerges. The match is about to start but Davari grabs the microphone in order to ask Anderson to call things down the middle. He calls upon various pieces of wrestling continuity referencing how the Hardy Boys have caused him grief in the past. All this is starting to go a little long and then Matt and Shawn start having a crowd cheer off, pointing to different parts of the crowd to get a reaction from them. While the crowd generally reacts positively to Matt as opposed to Shawn, there is a moment where the cheers fade and one loud boo follows them, to the amusement of Mr. Anderson.
All this goes on for a bit long. Once the match actually starts, Davari and Hardy brawl in the crowd on the other side of the ring, making it impossible for us to see what's going on. Around this time we notice that it's already after 11, which seems late for one of these shows, and most of the children have been taken home, no doubt due to the lateness of the hour. By the time the match returns to the ring, it's too late for our section of the crowd, perhaps the entire crowd as most of the match continues in a weird, tired quiet with the occasional outburst. Matt Hardy ends up with the win. He calls Mr. Anderson to the ring to finish out the show as this is his turf. Ken talks a bit more and then the show is over, round about 11:30.

It was a really good show with great moments up until the last couple matches. The problems with the title match as well as Estrada 'stealing' the title did feel like a drain on the crowd that never completely faded. In general, the crowd seemed to die partway through the main event, but I'm not sure how much of that opinion is due to our section, and especially our group, going 'eh' after the stalling and the talking and the brawling we couldn't see. We expected better of the main event and the combination of issues during the title match derailed it. It was a great show that just stumbled severely enough at the end to make you walk out with a sour taste in your mouth.

There was no announcement of the next card which I thought was odd.