A Live Wrestling Event by CSW

The road to Central States Wrestling – Iron Sharpens Iron has been one paved in the intertwined story of two men – Dak Draper and Jeremy Wyatt. Both men hold belts presented as “equal” within the company, but in the game of professional wrestling, rarely can such a unique arrangement prove successful and long-standing. Jeremy Wyatt holds the DWF Championship, a belt christened in 2021 when CSW had a different name, and Dak Draper holds the Central States Championship, a legendary historic belt in the area. A kingdom can only have one king, which proves a problem in this case.

Which would you, my faithful reader, say is more prestigious? Perhaps, a championship that has been held for years by one man, or one with a long-stranding lineage? Wyatt has absolutely dominated the Kansas City wrestling scene since Covid-19 started to fade away, holding his DWF Championship for a staggering 672 days as of this show. He has appeared on almost every CSW event since the company’s inception, and takes offense to any suggestion that he is not THE champ of the company. Draper, on the other hand has been holding the Central States Championship for 267 days – which is nothing to scoff at in the slightest. Draper, however, has not defended his belt nearly as much, resulting in him missing a handful of shows throughout the year. This is a fact that either bemused or outright aggravated Jeremy Wyatt in interviews.

The quest to have one, unrivaled champion in CSW has been a tough one – everyone thought we’d get our winner at the now ironically named event, Coronation, but their bout resulted in a time-limit draw. Even with five additional minutes added to the mix, it just wasn’t enough. Now with a Sixty Minute Iron Man Match in the hopper and a guarantee that there will be a winner, Iron Sharpens Iron promised to be one of the most significant shows in CSW history.

For more insight into even more ongoing feuds, check out my Preview of CSW Iron Sharpens Iron.

Without further ado, here’s what happened at Iron Sharpens Iron!

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The Card:

July 29^th 2023 – Central States Wrestling – Iron Sharpens Iron – Lenexa Kansas at the National Guard Armory.

• Orion Starlight Defeated Wrex Amadeus
• The Howletts (Anaya and Hoodie) Defeated Miracle Violence Reborn (Moonshine Mantell and Derek Neal) w/ Greg Jovi
• Gil Rogers Defeated “Black Diamond” Luke Langley
• Maddox w/ Coach Frass Azab Defeated Austin Reddick w/ Greg Jovi
• The Hate Keepers (Shain Boucher & Solomon Tupu) Defeated The Premier (Campbell Myers and SK Bishop) w/ Roscoe Leech
• “America’s Sweetheart” Ethan Price Defeated Papa Lypto
• “The Giant Killer” Scott Tyler w/ Roscoe Leech Defeated Mike Outlaw by DQ after The Premier attacked him during a pinfall
• “Landshark” Conan Lycan defeated “2nd 2 none” Kenny Alfonzo and Dan the Dad in a three-way match
• “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt Defeated “Magnum” Dak Draper in a 60 minute iron man match at 59:59 – Wyatt had 4 falls, Draper had 3. Dak Draper passed out and was unable to finish the match for the final fall.

Match graphics below:

DISCLAIMER:

I’ve come up with this little disclaimer since I have some new readers:

READ MY FULL DISCLAIMER HERE

I usually go through a show and pull a half dozen or so things that I thought were significant, or that I liked, and concentrate on them, usually ignoring stuff I did not. You might think some of my choices are dumb, and that’s OK! We can all like different things, that’s what makes something like wrestling so great.

My Thoughts:

Shifting Orion:

Orion Starlight got just a tad bit too cocky last month at CSW Coronation. Since his match against Adam Azab was thrown out due to interference by Miracle Violence Reborn, he felt the need to issue an open challenge – only to lose pretty handedly to the returning Gil Rogers. Gil seeped the energy from “Gil’s Army” and got that elusive win, his first EVER in Kansas City. Starlight had been somewhat of a crowd favorite in dark matches leading up to that show, so witnessing his growing arrogance soured the crowd on him for this. That’s why at Central States Wrestling – Iron Sharpens Iron, everyone was seemingly behind Wrex Amadeus, perhaps for the first time in CSW history.

I mean, Wrex is no slouch, anyone watching him for the past few years has seen the work he has been putting in. Briefly managed by Roscoe Leech only to be abandoned during a match, Wrex has blossomed into quite the competitor in 2023, a man ready to take on pretty much any challenge he can come across. He dominated for quite a bit during this match, but Starlight was able to secure the win. Did the tepid reception from the crowd somehow energize Orion Starlight? Is he one of those guys that seemingly thrives on adversity? How about Amadeus getting his first glimmer of fan appreciation? It will be interesting to see the trajectories of both of these men moving forward!

Spiraling Out of Control:

The Howletts have a keen knack of being the targets of a seemingly never-ending barrage of violence from the entire tag team roster at CSW. After barely surviving a year-long war against The Premier, Anaya and Hoodie had pretty much zero time to rest when Miracle Violence Reborn came into being and started demolishing everyone in their paths. The two teams have been colliding for a while now with their numerous run-ins usually ending up as no contests or draws as no referee seems capable of handling the chaos that happens when these two forces of nature slam into each other.

The match started with a security detail rivaling ones found at The White House attempting to ensure the match actually started and that nothing was going to devolve into a brawl right off the proverbial bat. It was an intense match with numerous chair shots and guardrail whips outside of the ring, and somehow there managed to be an actual winner! Unfortunately, Greg Jovi and his goons were not going to let their loss just sit there, and a never-ending battle that haunted the night commenced…

Oopsie…

Luke Langley has been riding high throughout the year, building up one of the most impressive winning streaks in 2023, pulled from the ashes of his massive losing streak that went back to 2022. He spent the better part of the year re-challenging and defeating various names that had bested him in the past – Mike Outlaw, Jamison Holley, Dan the Dad, and more. With his “revenge tour” not yet complete (he has yet to face-off against Dak Draper for a second time), he’s had a few matches against guys like Conan Lycan that have kept the streak going. Facing off with Gil Rogers seemed like an easy win – the guy didn’t just have a losing streak in CSW, but one that went as far back as Metro Pro Wrestling or National Wrasslin’ League – a decade of matches in Kansas City without a single win! It was assumed Langley would silence his “fluke” win from Coronation and continue on…

Delivering kick after sickening kick to Rogers’ head, Luke Langley was on a mission – he wanted to make a statement by bashing Gil’s head in like Gallagher and a Watermelon at a stand-up show in the 80’s. Langley hammed it up, pulled his pins, delivered brain buster after brain buster, and even made a kid in the audience cry, but it was not enough – Gil Rogers never fell down or gave up. Gil’s Army never gave up on him, and their cheers kept the man going past the most that most men would have given up. Langley made one final mistake when he turned his back on Gil at one point and suffered the ultimate humiliation – a surprise roll-up pin and that 1-2-3 that nobody saw coming. Now, all of the sudden, the tables have turned – Gil Rogers is on a white-hot winning streak, taking down a highly-ranked member of the CSW roster. Luke Langley? This could either be the end for his momentum or a kick to the pants he needed – if he can refocus and knock off the arrogant nonsense, he could be a title contender.

Maddox is a Beast!

One of the many victims of the recent war between Miracle Violence Reborn and the rest of the CSW roster was Maddox. Maddox made his debut last month at Coronation, and generally wrestles in and around the Colorado area. After losing in his debut match to Moonshine Mantell, he was unceremoniously attacked in one of many disruptions throughout that show. Maddox is a VERY imposing man, standing 6’9″ tall and over 300 pounds, but I have a feeling he was picked to make a point by MVR. “Go big or go home” as they say, and you can’t get much bigger than this giant of a man.

This is why I find it somewhat interesting that Greg Jovi picked Iron Sharpens Iron to recruit a new client in his portfolio – claiming it was simply because “1 Called Manders was too busy at the moment.” Introducing Austin Reddick, also from in and around Colorado. Jovi is seemingly building quite the team, and may the gods help us if they all end up in the same match together! By interjecting himself in this match, Is Jovi antagonizing Maddox at this point? To what end? Well, whatever he’s doing, it blew up in his face, because Maddox has enlisted the help of Coach Frass Azab to be his manager, and he bested Reddick and Jovi at every turn. By doing some absolutely crazy stuff as a “big man” such as walking the ropes, (scratch that, he walked almost the entire ring!) and deploying a massive 7 foot drop of a choke-slam, he’s not a man to mess with. Of course, yet another loss was met with a brutal beatdown and a continuation of the brawl from earlier, which seemingly has not ended at this point!

Not According to Plan…

This was one of the main matches to keep your eyes on at Iron Sharpens Iron, as the ongoing drama between The Premier and their manager, Roscoe Leech, continues to boil over. This goes all the way back to Deal with the Steel IV, wherein Roscoe suffered a contract stipulated beat-down after his boys lost the match. For the first few months of 2023 Roscoe seemed apathetic to his job, at best, if not outright hostile to his clients. It seemed as if their antics had finally crossed a line and he was ready to move on. The Premier walked out on him a few times, and SK Bishop nearly attacked him after a show at one point. Going into this show, it seemed as if the three had come to an understanding, or at least that’s what Roscoe seemed to think. Everyone apologized and “hugged it out”, hoping to start fresh as if nothing happened.

We got shades of classic Roscoe Leech in this match against The Hate Keepers (Shain Boucher & Solomon Tupu), as he looked more willing to “bend the rules a bit”, but that was ultimately their undoing. The Hate keepers got the win, and The Premier were sent to the back without that sweet extra cash once again. The Hate Keepers did a great job, and I hope we get to see them again sometime in the future. From the showmanship of spraying money everywhere, to the unorthodox make-up of a power-moves guy and a high flyer, they seem to be something special that CSW could do a lot with. Now that the dust has settled, something tells me the drama between the members of The Premier is not over yet…

Don’t Underestimate America’s Sweetheart!

For a while now, America’s Sweetheart Ethan Price has been an absolute beast when it comes to three-way matches, but seems to not fare as well on one-on-one bouts. This is likely because of the sort of opportunist he is, taking advantage of the chaotic nature of such matches. In this match with Papa Lypto, however, he seems to have hit his groove and scored a pretty solid win. Papa Lypto did pretty well, handedly earning the support of the crowd, but sadly it was not enough.

….Anddddd….There it is…

Everyone knows that if you rip a Band-Aid off slowly, you end up suffering more pain than you ever would if you just yanked it off right then and there. That is exactly what happened here, as Roscoe Leech, at the side of “The Giant Killer” Scott Tyler, suffered a humiliatingly rough beatdown at the hands of The Premier. It seems that losing at this show was the last straw, and Roscoe was going to pay no matter what. Just when it seemed like Tyler was about to get a win over Outlaw, there they were and that was that. It will be interesting to see if Tyler and Mike Outlaw end of working together since they now have a common enemy. Outlaw wasn’t even supposed to be in the match, and was a last-minute replacement for “The Atrocity” Krule after he decided to “call into work” yet again. I’m sure he’s pretty angry on his own for being roped into “family drama”. The Premier have likely poked the wrong bear, and are about to suffer the consequences unless they can get a new manager.

The Landshark’s Bite:

CSW fans have seen “The Landshark” Conan Lycan on the scene for the better part of the year already, but Iron Sharpens Iron marks his very first win in the company. Battling the likes of Dan the Dad and 2nd 2 None Kenny Alfonso, the odds were definitely against him, but his power and agility proved too great for the others and he pulled it off. I’m pretty excited because I have been really impressed with Lycan since he arrived, and was hoping he would start settling into the way things are done at Central States Wrestling. While it’s still early on, one has to believe that wins like this will eventually lead to something big – like a title match, in the future, and I’m all ready.

I AM IRON MAN!

Usually when I see an Iron Man Match get announced for literally any wrestling show I get worried. Historically, they are a bit of a mixed-bag, and some can be VERY boring. In cases like that, nothing happens for like 45 minutes, then somebody gets a cheap win at the end – not exactly something I wanted to see, and not something my son could sit through. Thankfully, with CSW and the caliber of performers on their roster, this should have not even been a thought in my mind. “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt and “Magnum” Dak Draper absolutely crushed it and even my seven year old son, who has a short attention span, was glued to the match. Mind you, this wasn’t one hour of high-spots or anything, but a well-structured and entertaining match that was as balanced as it was exciting.

Jeremy Wyatt knew that time was against him, and made sure to run-down the clock whenever he had even the slightest opportunity to do so. This included numerous times of him getting out of the ring, running around for ten seconds, then scoring cheap hits on Draper. If Jeremy Wyatt had a super-power it would be near unbeatable ring-awareness, because he can take any situation and turn it into something that helps him out. Take, for example, what happened towards the end of the match.

BTW – here is the full match now!

To say this match is going to be controversial is quite the understatement, as the continuing backstage brawl between the likes of Maddox, Coach Frass Azab, Hoodie Howlett, and Anaya Howlett against Austin Reddick, Greg Jovi, Moonshine Mantell, and Derek Neal spilled into the match about five minutes away from the end, and could have very likely caused the outcome of Jeremy Wyatt winning that knock-out victory over Dak Draper.

Tainted as his win was, Jeremy Wyatt is the undisputed Central States Champion, with the DWF belt being folded in and retired, cementing his name as the true “King of Kansas City Wrestling”. Hail to the king baby!

Conclusion:

Central States Wrestling – Iron Sharpens Iron will go down as yet another classic show from a company that specializes in amazing shows. Every match was solid, and the various feuds are all building up to a mighty crescendo at the end of the year. CSW fans FINALLY have a single champ to look up to, no matter how questionably he secured that win. I personally can’t wait to see Roscoe Leech’s response to being attacked from two men he likely considered family, or at least a meal ticket for the time being, like some sort of dog. Messing with Roscoe when he’s mad is never a good call, and The Premier will likely regret doing what they did. And how could I forget about the rise of Gil Rogers, a man FINALLY getting his due in Kansas City! Overall, Central States Wrestling – Iron Sharpens Iron was a great show and a solid lead up to their September show, A Glitch in the Matrix.

Standings:

I have been doing standings for a while, but I did not have time to get those together for this – I will do a separate post at a later time and catch these up. My apologies if you are looking forward to these.

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