On Saturday, May 25th, several situations came to a head at the latest taping of Pro-Wrestling Collision. The biggest, however, was that “Survival Mode” was the last show for owner Chris Hagstrom, as he had announced he was leaving the company to pursue other paths. On Saturday, he made an emotional farewell speech, detailing how PWC had come to life, and how proud he was of everyone involved. He also said that he would be revealing the new owner before the show was over.
There were a few changes that shook up the card and necessitated some reshuffling. The three way for the PWC Heavyweight Championship between Heath Hatton (c), Bull Bronson and “Serial Thriller” Shane Rich lost a member when it was announced that Shane Rich (as well as JJ Garrett and Kyle Sykes) would be unable to attend for personal reasons. Therefore it would be a one on one contest between Hatton and Bronson – or so it seemed…
Also the week before, a press release was issued which stated that the “No Limits” Champion, Joey O’Riley, had been injured. Therefore, without knowing how long he would be unable to compete, the decision was made to strip him of the title and crown a new champion at “Survival Mode”. The fatal four way elimination match would still include Christian Rose, Zakk Sawyer, and Matt Cage but now the fourth person would be Joey’s tag team partner and best friend Jay Spade. It would remain to be seen if the No Limits title would stay in Team XXX or if a member of Team Overkill would take the strap.
Due to Angelus Layne’s absence from the past two Collision tapings, Creative Director Adam Testa had announced she would face an opponent of his choosing. However, three days before “Survival Mode”, she claimed to be medically unable to compete, having had major dental surgery. Testa didn’t believe her and ordered her to come to the show and provide proof of this.
With an extra spot open, Chaos Pro (friends of PWC) presented a showcase match. The CPW Champion, Ty Blade, would defend against “The Strong Style Nature Boy” Chic Canyon.
Lastly, tensions between Adam Testa and the “Self Made Monster” Alex Castle threatened to explode after the latter continued to experience unfair treatment. The personal issues between the two would come to a breaking point at “Survival Mode.” Read on to see what went down.
The show was sadly not as well attended as one would have hoped, but the small crowd was noisy throughout the evening. The opening contest was the Chaos Pro showcase between Ty Blade (defending his CPW belt) and Chic Canyon. It was a good opener that saw Blade retain the title; he was massively over with the fans as much as Canyon was hated. Chic was sporting a hairstyle reminiscent of Rockers-era Shawn Michaels – blonde, medium length and curly. Unfortunately having good hair wasn’t enough to get the three count.
Second match in was a highly entertaining and fast paced tag team match: Today’s Youth (Jeff O’Shea and Mallaki Mathews) versus King ENT (Matt and Chase King). Considering this was my first time seeing the majority of these guys in person, I was really impressed with these two teams. Their energy and charisma were off the charts, and fans responded to them. A sweet double team maneuver gave King ENT the win; with any luck, we’ll see a rematch down the line. Definitely one of the best matches of the show.
Next up was Justice (accompanied by someone who bore a striking resemblance to Willie Nelson) taking on Mikey McFinnegan, who has a bit of a Rick Rude thing going on. Mikey drilled Justice with a lariat for the pin. To be honest, I wasn’t wholly into this match, more due to Justice than McFinnegan. He seems to have a biker gimmick, and as a result the match was more slow paced than I usually enjoy. It wasn’t for me.
Afterwards out came the “Power Couple” of PWC – Angelus Layne and Alex Castle. Whoever decided to have Layne try to speak should have thought twice – her poor jaw was still massively swollen from the extensive dental surgery she had had done just two days prior. As it was, between that and the crowd drowning her out, it was near impossible to hear what she had to say. She was attempting to explain that her medical reasons for not competing were legitimate, which brought out Adam Testa. Testa proceeded to berate the two of them, and then went on to claim that Castle’s tag team partner for the evening, Reed Bentley, was not there for unknown reasons. Instead of calling off the tag team title match, Adam said that, partner or no partner, the match would go on as a handicap match. Castle and Layne protested but to no avail – Ace Hawkins and Brandon Espinosa came out and the match was under way.
Alex Castle put up a good fight but in the end, the numbers were too much (the Creative Director also stayed at ringside, presumably to keep Angelus at bay) – Brandon hit a nice frog splash to retain the tag titles. However, their victory was short lived as Matt and Chase King attacked the tag champions afterwards and they brawled to the back. At this point, the original three were left in the ring and Testa again ranted about the issues between the three of them and warned it would come to an end. Castle, fed up, demanded that since Shane Rich wasn’t at the event, he be put into the main event for the PWC Heavyweight Championship. The stipulation if he lost was that Alex Castle would no longer work for PWC. At first, Adam refused…but after some intense persuasion he gave in. The three way was back on.
After a brief intermission, the next contest was Ax Allwardt (accompanied by Gaylord Stevens and J. Wellington Beauregard) taking on “Farmer” Billy Hills. I couldn’t take this match seriously, and for most of it I was confused on who was the heel and who was the babyface. It seemed like the former was the heel, but Hills employed a lot of heel tactics – and the end came when Beauregard threw a chain in for Billy to knock out Ax with and get the pin. Stevens and Allwardt beat down Beauregard, who was carried out over the shoulder of Hills. Their beat down drew cheers from the crowd. Lastly, Hills was your prototypical hillbilly character that reminded me way too much of the Godwinns. Overalls, straw hat…and a cape that was the confederate flag and the American flag sown together. Which was distasteful to me, but got a pop since we were in Southern Illinois. Fortunately the next match proved to be the match of the night in my opinion.
The four way for the No Limits Championship is a match everyone needs to see. There was a great variety of styles that mixed together nicely, a good story that was told, and a heartfelt moment at the end. Jay Spade was outnumbered by Team Overkill (Christian Rose, Zakk Sawyer and Matt Cage), but put up an amazing fight as the underdog. For the first few minutes, Cage let the others do the work, and Rose almost murdered Spade with a sick powerbomb onto the edge of the ring. Yet when Sawyer attempted to pin Jay and he kicked out, Christian took out his frustration on Zakk – and promptly paid for it by getting rolled up by the latter to be the first one eliminated. At this point, Cage and Zakk got on the same page, and after Matt hit Jay with a hard knee to the face, Sawyer covered Spade to eliminate him. It was down to the apprentice and the master. Cage ordered Zakk to lay down for the pin but he refused and the two battled it out until Sawyer nailed a variation of a brain buster to win the No Limits Championship. Afterwards, Matt said that he had completed his apprenticeship and was henceforth a full member of Team Overkill. He fastened the belt around Zakk’s waist and congratulated him on the win, which prompted the new champ to pounce on his mentor with a hug. Fans might have expected Cage to turn on his former protege, but the two walked out to a good ovation. Match of the night hands down.
Prior to the main event, Chris Hagstrom came out to announce the new owner of Pro-Wrestling Collision. He brought out Adam Testa, who was nursing an injured neck from earlier. Testa said that he was honored that Hagstrom had chosen him to be the new owner and claimed that there would be some changes around here. Chris interrupted at this point, saying Adam had misunderstood – he had brought out the Creative Director to admonish him for letting his personal vendetta against Castle blind him to everything else. Hagstrom then brought out the person he had sold PWC to, the person he was convinced would have the financial backing to build on the solid foundation he had started – J. Wellington Beauregard.
This caused a massive backlash from the crowd as well as from Adam Testa. Beauregard came out and announced that his first act as the new owner was to fire someone. That someone wasn’t Alex Castle, as Testa had hoped though, it turned out to be the Creative Director himself that was fired. This prompted both boos and cheers (although mostly the former) from the crowd, and caused Adam to storm out enraged.
The main event went forward, despite the confusion and uproar, and this was a very solid match. Castle came out wearing a light blue denim vest that made him look very dapper; Bull Bronson sported boxing shorts, which reminded me of King Hippo from the Nintendo game “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out”; and Heath Hatton had a gladiator look and was accompanied by a bunch of kids who adored him. Bronson basically dominated both men for the majority of the time. It was a stiff battle that saw Bronson put Heath through a table and almost get a win several times. However, when the end came, it was a jumble that if you weren’t paying close attention you would miss.
Adam Testa came storming back in with a baseball bat and proceeded to get into it with Angelus Layne while trying to cost Castle the victory. When he was disarmed, Testa went into the audience and forced this writer to give up her chair (although I didn’t give it up without a fight!) and again tried to intervene. Layne chased him out, wielding the bat, while in the ring the referee was caught between (I believe) Hatton and Bull when Bull splashed both of them into the second table, knocking out the ref. At this point, Beauregard came out to provide a distraction and once Bull had Heath laid out, J signaled for a second referee to run out and provide a fast three count. Your new PWC Heavyweight Champion…Bull Bronson.
Promptly after this, one of the PWC commentators, Jerome Cusson, grabbed a mic and quit due to the reprehensible actions of the new owner. Alex Castle, having lost, was also out of the company. There was a new champion who had been aided and abetted by Beauregard in cheating to win the belt. The crowd was not happy – and neither was I, having watched not only a screwjob finish, but also an innocent man screwed out of his PWC career by a disgruntled former employee.
Where things go from here remains to be seen. However, since the company’s start in January, Pro-Wrestling Collision has been dedicated to offering a good wrestling product in Southern Illinois. All the previous episodes are available to watch for free on YouTube, so fans can easily start to follow and support them. Whenever “Survival Mode” is uploaded I highly recommend people to give it a watch. For a show that featured seven matches, five of them got a thumbs up from me, with the four way a definite must-watch. There were several stories that were told here, some resolved, some just starting, and hopefully in the coming months we will see how the new ones play out. Overall, there are several hard working talents here that are worth your support and worth watching to see what happens with them in the future. For me, it was definitely worth the drive.