A Live Professional Wrestling Event

Over Columbus Day weekend I did something I have never done in the entirety of my time as a wrestling fan – attend back-to-back shows as part of a tour. Tri States Wrestling just wrapped up its Second Annual Midwest Tour, stopping at four cities across northern Missouri in the span of four days. Unfortunately, I must work at night, so I missed shows in Palmyra, MO and Chillicothe, MO, but was able to attend the second half of the tour – this show in St. Joseph, MO and one in Gladstone, MO. TSW prides itself on being one of, if not THE only, US-Based professional wrestling promotions that does consecutive day touring. These two shows mark the second and third of FOUR wrestling shows I am attending in the span of a month, which marks another first for me. It’s honestly a wonderful time to be a wrestling fan in Northwestern, Missouri, and Eastern Kansas as there are so many active groups putting on amazing shows that (in my humble opinion) rival the “big guys” in terms of entertainment value.

While I splurged and opted for VIP tickets for these shows, one of the best parts of seeing an independent wrestling show is the cost – TSW had tickets as low as ten dollars for adults and kids got in free. Considering inflation and the cost of most forms of entertainment, you really can’t beat spending less than the price of a single movie ticket to bring your family. Plus, you can meet most of the wrestlers, buy things like autographs and shirts, and chow down on standard concession stand food. It’s a hell of a great time, and I implore more people to try it!

The Tri States Wrestling Second Annual Midwest Tour was headlined by the TSW Champion himself Franco Varga and guest appearances by some pretty noteworthy talent including former WWE superstar Simon Gotch, WARHORSE, and The Tonys (Tonē (pronounced like Tony, but spelled like Tonē) Bennett and Tony Leyenda). These guys, mixed with all your favorite regular TSW stars make up one of the more impressive rosters in the area. I will talk about this later on, but this tour was a real challenge for pretty much every champion in the company. Having to wrestle up to FOUR times, especially in the case of Varga, in order to make it through still holding the belt is a challenge most wrestlers rarely have to face. As you will see, not everyone made it out the other end with their prestige intact.

So, what happened on the other two days?

Tri States Wrestling – 2nd Annual Midwest Tour Night 1 Palmyra, MO
10/5/23 @ the Palmyra Middle School Gym

• The Tonys (Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda) defeated The Fajita Taker and The Math Magician (c) – winning the Tri States Wrestling Tag Team Titles
• “The Strangler” Roy Lewis defeated The Iceman and Bert Candy in an elimination triple threat by pinning both men
• Shooter Shylynn defeated Stormi Renee
• Storm Dior (Tobias Storm and Blaire Dior) defeated Astonishing Mustache (“Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo and Wrex Amadeus) to become the #1 Contenders to the TSW Tag Team Titles
• Franco Varga (C) defeated Simon Gotch to retain the TSW Championship

Tri States Wrestling – 2nd Annual Midwest Tour Night 2 Chillicothe, MO
10/6/23 @ the Sliced Bread Innovation Center, Chillicothe, MO

• Dr. Isin defeated Wrex Amadeus
• Astonishing Austin Mulitalo defeated Bert Candy
• Stormi Renee defeated Shooter Shylynn
• The Tonys (Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda) (C) retained the TSW Tag Titles over Blaire Dior and Tobias Storm
• Simon Gotch defeated The Iceman
• Tri States Wrestling Champion Franco Varga defeated The Math Magician to retain his title

For More about Tri States Wrestling, check out their Facebook Page HERE, their Twitter (or I guess X) page HERE, or YouTube HERE. TSW is also on Cagematch, HERE. If you are a fan, make sure to drop likes, and reviews, or join their social media pages! For more pro wrestling content, Click HERE.

For information on Against All Odds Animal ResQ, click HERE. TSW generally does charity drives for them, and you can routinely see all sorts of needy animals at their shows.

If you want other wrestling shows, I recommend Fite.TV. You can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch some of these, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The Card:

Tri States Wrestling – 2nd Annual Midwest Tour Night 3 St. Joseph, MO

10/7/23 @ St. Joseph Rec Center, St. Joseph, MO

• Wrex Amadeus defeated Bert Candy
• The Iceman defeated The Fajita Taker
• Simon Gotch defeated “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt (C), winning the US Highway Championship
• The Tonys (Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda) (C) retained the TSW Tag Titles over Blaire Dior and Tobias Storm
• Stormi Renee defeated Shooter Shylynn
• Tri States Wrestling Champion Franco Varga defeated WARHORSE to retain his title

DISCLAIMER:

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:

I’m experimenting with my format here, let me know what you think in the comments!

Wrex Amadeus must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed over the Columbus Day weekend, because he was in a pretty foul mood and wanted to make sure everyone knew about it. That includes the referee, the ring announcers, and sadly those of us in the crowd in that packed rec. center. Luckily, Bert Candy was on the scene bringing an overall air of joy and happiness with him, as he always does. Bert is always a huge hit with the crowd no matter where I see him – he’s damn near unmovable when he has firm footing and his patented “Steamroller” combined with his big splash is usually all it takes to put somebody away.

With the fans firmly behind Bert, he was able to dodge many of Wrex’s attacks, but was eventually, and unfortunately, taken down in the end. Wrex has been on a bit of a roll ever since his US Highway Championship match, and that momentum carried him through here as well. After this, Wrex earned himself a TSW Championship match on night four of the tour which will likely be his biggest challenge to date.

The moment I realized that we were about to see a match-up between Fajita Taker and The Iceman, I just knew there wasn’t going to be a booty in the whole arena not shaking and a set of hands not clapping. Both men are known for their dancing abilities, so it was just a question of which was stronger – ice cold lock popping or sizzling spicy cabbage patches. With two fan favorites duking it out, it was hard to pick which competitor to really root for, but it seemed like the crowd was largely behind The Iceman.

After a pretty balanced back-and-forth full of unorthodox dance-infused attacks, The Iceman clenched the win moving one step closer to redemption after the TSW Championship was pulled from his hands last month. This was a really fun match, and EVERYONE was into it. That’s one of the wonderful things about Tri States Wrestling, or honestly any indy wrestling in general – there’s something for everyone and you have a mix of serious and fun all in the same show.

“The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt dominates professional wrestling in this area, and much like Batman, he has studied most of the talent in the area to concoct ways to defeat all of them. This has proved to be remarkably successful, with him holding gold in many places and rarely giving it up. What Wyatt was not prepared for, however, was a reinvigorated former Vaudevillain, fresh off of an extended tour of Japan, with something to prove. You see, one of Gotch’s most prominent matches in Missouri in the past (he was trained by Harley Race and worked here for years) before departing for the WWE was against none other than Wyatt Himself in Metro Pro Wrestling. Wyatt bested him then, so the question was – would history repeat itself?

Perhaps not expecting the technical onslaught he was about to receive, Wyatt seemed out of his element in St. Joseph, MO. Gotch simply outclassed Wyatt at every turn and countered all his cheap tricks such as wasting time outside of the ring and tricking the referee. When it was all said and done, Gotch secured the US Highway Championship and showed Wyatt what a difference twelve years can make. Gotch extended the olive branch and told Wyatt he respected him and everything he did for him in the past, but in typical Monarch-style, Wyatt was having none of that. With his ego bruised and a big L under his name, I can only imagine how dangerous Wyatt is going to be in the future, especially if he decides to go for his belt again.

The Tonys is comprised of Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda, two men that I am not too familiar with, but am glad to have seen at this show. Both Tonys largely wrestle on the East Coast, and you can’t get two guys that look more like wrestling champions than them. From the moment they walked into the arena, dressed in fine suits, they were showing off their newly acquired belts (after defeating Math Magician and Fajita Taker) and letting the audience know exactly who they were. Granted, most would take their attitude as being somewhat disrespectful, if not downright obnoxious, but I guess they earned that. Some might recall Tonē Bennett being one of the competitors in the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Classic (CWC) way back in 2016, and he’s even more impressive now than he was back then.

For this match-up they were going up against Blaire Dior and Tobias Storm in a rematch of a confrontation from the previous night. This was my first time seeing this pairing together, and I must say that “Storm Dior” worked very well together in this matchup. There wasn’t a spare moment where something wasn’t going on, with all four competitors going at it like characters in a video game. My mind raced back to the times of the old TNA X-Division and some of the insane matchups they had during that time. The Tonys proved far too much for Storm Dior, especially considering the lengths they would go to in order to win. Somehow, I don’t think this is the end of this feud, and I can’t wait for more!

Shooter Shylynn has working hard throughout the area, gaining quite a following and racking up tons of accomplishments. I guess that has somewhat pushed her ego out of bounds, because she seemed to be of the mind that she was better than everyone else and didn’t need the fans in any way. Apparently, this temperament led to Shylynn attempting to take liberties during her matches over the weekend, blindsiding Stormi Renee before the bell even rang in both cases. Thankfully, that did not happen this time around. This was the third and final deciding match between Renee and Shylynn over the weekend with the winner being able to have bragging rights for this impromptu “best of three” series.

While Shooter Shylynn had the momentum going into the match, the fans were firmly behind Stormi Renee, pounding on thundersticks (those inflatable noise making things) and cheering loudly for her. It was a very physical bout that really could have gone to either competitor, but Renee dug in deep and was able to secure the win and the series. This was my first time seeing Stormi Renee compete and I hope to see more in the future. She normally wrestles in South-Central Kansas and Oklahoma, but has been creeping over here ever so slowly. Her imposing stature and infectious optimism is great, and one can see why everyone young an old loves her.

Simply put – Franco Varga is a beast! Not many men could be put in a situation where they have to defend their championship on four consecutive days against four top-tier athletes, but being the fighting champion he is, Varga was definitely up to the challenge. Coming into this matchup with the internet sensation WARHORSE, Varga had already wrestled Math magician and Simon Gotch, two matches that undoubtedly took a toll on his body. That said, you would have never known this because he was on his A game throughout. Varga thrives on this and has entered into a crusade to travel everywhere he can and wrestle as much as he can, thus achieving the title “The Biggest Wrestler Ever”. I’m fairly new to seeing Varga wrestle, but you can’t help ne impressed by his power and tenacity as well as the code of honor he exhibits in all of his matches.

Despite being a fan-favorite, WARHORSE can be a tad cocky and that was in full-force in St. Joseph. The crowd was split about 60/40 in favor of Varga, but WARHORSE definitely had his support in the stands. There were many moments I thought we were about to see the crowning of a new champion, especially when WARHORSE strung a series of top-rope elbow drops and a deadly sharpshooter together, but he couldn’t seal the deal. Varga’s devastating corner Cannonball and Falcon Arrow variants are usually enough to put most competitors away, and for WARHORSE, he became yet another tally in Varga’s ever-increasing win column. This was a great match and sent every fan home happy.

Check out more pictures I took in music video form:

Conclusion:

I have been to a couple of Tri States Wrestling shows in the past, but from top-to-bottom, this was perhaps their best show that I have attended. Being packed with three HUGE title matches, solid match variety, and a roster that is hard to beat throughout the state made everything come together very well. St. Joseph always seems to be hungry for professional wrestling and seems to always turn out a decent crowd, and everyone was on fire during the show. There really wasn’t a bad match on the card, but the TSW Championship, TSW tag Team Championship, and US Highway Championship matches really sealed the deal for me. There’s just something about the passion of people going for titles that makes everything seem that much more important, and you could definitely see that here.

If you are within driving distance of one of these shows, I definitely recommend it. TSW will having a two-day residency in Bethany, Missouri in mid-December, and with any luck I can go to both of those shows as well. Either way, stay tuned for my review of night four of this tour, the big blow-off event in Gladstone, MO!

Also, don’t forget to check out my preview of this show HERE.