A Live Professional Wrestling Event

Before I really get going with this review, I want everyone to know that this is more-or-less a second part of another article about the previous night of a four-day tour. Sadly, I was unable to attend the first two days of this event, but I have included results for those events as well. Please take a moment to check in with the following two articles if you can:

Click HERE to read the preview for this tour.

Click HERE to read the previous review for night three.

I’m reposting the intro from the last article because it still applies here, plus I’m lazy and don’t want to rewrite the same info!

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!

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.

If you want other wrestling shows, I would 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 4 Gladstone, MO
10/8/23 @ Kansas City North Rec Center

• El Diablo defeated Dr. Isin
• Bert Candy defeated Astonishing Austin Mulitalo
• Franco Varga (c) defeated Wrex Amadeus to retain the TSW Championship
• The Iceman defeated Simon Gotch, becoming the US Highway Champion
• Stormi Renee defeated Ethan Everhart – intergender match
• Storm Dior (Tobias Storm and Blaire Dior) (C) defeated The Tonys (Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda) to win the Tri States Wrestling Tag Team Championships
  • Stipulations for the match were that if Storm Dior lost they could no longer challenge for the belts against The Tonys, and if The Tonys got DQ’d they’d be banned from TSW for one year and lose the belts

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 mentioned in the preview for this event that I had never actually seen El Diablo perform live, and by the end of this I have come to realize that I have really missed out. Hailing from the future year of 3099, El Diablo is a unique high-flyer that will do pretty much anything, even putting his body on the line, to put his opponents away. This bout was not an easy one either, as he and “The Hypothetical Specialist” Dr. isin have butted heads many times with Dr. Isin usually coming out on top. The match went back and forth with both competitors really going at it, but it was El Diablo’s crazy high-flying antics that sealed the deal for his victory.

At one point, after chanting “UP! UP! UP!”, El Diablo hurled himself from the relative safety of the ring to the cold embrace of a metal folding table located outside (glad it wasn’t our table!). Of course, he was hoping to catch Dr. Isin on his descent, but everyone’s favorite medical practitioner from the University of Guadalajara Online was too smart to be caught in that. El Diablo was relentless in his aerial assault, however, and eventually Isin succumbed to one too many splashes. He was laid out for the 1-2-3 and that’s all she wrote. This was a solid opening match that really got the crowd going!

After suffering an unfortunate loss to Wrex Amadeus at the previous show, Gladstone was set to be the site of Bert Candy’s redemption for the tour. Bert is not usually known to be a master of mind games, but he was on fire here by somehow convincing “Astonishing” Austin Mulitalo that squaring up in a sumo wrestling stance was a good idea. After a handful of takedowns with Austin on the losing end, Candy was able to build up some solid offense that Mulitalo was never really ever able to get ahead of. That isn’t to say Mulitalo was a complete pushover, by any means, as he has been known to stack wins up wherever he goes. A combination of the travel schedule of the weekend and the initial fury of Bert’s Sumo prowess caught him off guard.

The coup de grâce was the combination of Candy’s patented big splash and his Steamroller move – a brutal insult to injury where Candy rolls over the broken bodies of his victims, taking advantage of his substantial body mass as a bone crushing near submission move. All that was left was for Austin to accept his loss and get in a fight with a venue chair for some reason, which is something that happened after the match! What a turn-around 24 hours made for Bert Candy, a man that stays positive and harnesses that to do some utterly amazing stuff.

Wrestling fans in Gladstone, MO learned a dark secret on the night of October 8th, 2023, a fact that Wrex Amadeus was hoping to keep hidden away until he was long down the highway away from the venue. You see, Wrex Amadeus, a man that talked some mad crap on the city and its inhabitants before the match, was actually from Gladstone, Missouri and was trying to hide it as best as he could. TSW Champion Franco Varga was on the case, set the record straight, and added a fun little stipulation – if Wrex lost, he would have to admit to everyone that he was in fact a former resident of the small suburb of Kansas City, putting some respect back in the city’s name.

The match honestly could have gone anywhere as Wrex Amadeus has been doing very well in TSW as of late. That combined with the fact that “The Biggest Wrestler Ever” Franco Varga spent the previous three days defending his championship against four top-tier athletes, such as WARHORSE, Math magician, and Simon Gotch. You better believe he was feeling it by night four. No matter what underhanded thing Amadeus tried to pull, Varga was there with his relentless onslaught of moves that make you wonder if the dude ever gets tired. In the end Franco survived the tour with his belt intact, earning a great deal of respect from the fans and proving that he is a fighting champion. You better believe that a beaten down Wrex Amadeus had to come clean about his hometown being Gladstone, Missouri amid chants of “HE’S FROM GLADSTONE!”, which you can tell ruined his entire weekend. Better luck next time Wrex!

Putting the fun aside, this was easily Wrex’s biggest match in the company, and he did a hell of a job. Prior to Bulldog Brawl, I wasn’t even very familiar with Franco Varga, but he has easily gone to prove what a fighting champion looks like. This was a great match all around, glad I was able to see it live.

The Iceman ruled the Spring and early Summer with his well-deserved 2023 championship run, only to have everything cut short back at Bulldog Brawl in a losing effort to Franco Varga. Regrouping and refocusing, the legendary face of wrestling in Northern Missouri has been hard at work preparing for a stab at either the US Highway Championship or a rematch for the TSW Championship. Luck would have it that he would become the number one contender for the US Highway Championship one night removed from it changing hands from “The Monarch” Jeremy Wyatt to Simon Gotch. There’s not much time to prepare for a match like this, with a competitor coming in from out of town, but The Iceman has been around and wrestled Gotch before. At that time, Gotch came out on top, so the question was – how would a veteran Iceman, ten years down the road, fair against such an intense challenge?

Well, it turns out that he did very well, as The Iceman stands as the new, and reigning, US Highway Champion after this match! Gotch had a slight age advantage against Iceman, but seemingly lost sight of the prize going up against Iceman in Gladstone. Beating Jeremy Wyatt seemed to be a goal of his over the weekend, and he did not seem to be prepared for a competitor with as much heart and tenacity as The Iceman. The crowd was firmly behind The Iceman as they always are, and that energy nurtured and fed him – pushing him to dig down deep and get that win. I think we can all agree it’s well-deserved and hopefully he gets some rest between now and December when I’m sure that belt will be on the line once again!

After finally putting a mini feud with Shooter Shylynn to bed, coming out with two wins out of three, Stormi Renee needed an opponent for Gladstone, and issued an open challenge. There was some speculation online as to who it could be, but I don’t think many would have predicted Ethan Everhart stepping up. You don’t really see inter-gender matches around here too often, so this was a welcome bit of variety that goes to show that Tri States Wrestling has a bit of everything for everyone.

This was my first-time seeing Ethan Everhart, and my first impressions are that he’s an arrogant and pompous man that will sink to any low to win. I’m sure he figured that he’d get an easy win against Stormi, and boy was he wrong. This was a hard-hitting match with two opponents that were largely the same size and Stormi Renee went on to get the win, delighting all the fans in attendance. Despite my misgivings on one, I’d love to see both competitors back on future cards, if only so that I can see Ethan Everhart getting beat up again!

The main event for this show was a big one. No matter what, this was going to be THE final match between Storm Dior (Tobias Storm and Blaire Dior) and The Tonys (Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda) for the Tri States Wrestling Tag Team Championships. After some shenanigans throughout the weekend, TSW management made the right call by locking everything down with some ground rules, likely to subdue any under-handed tactics by The Tonys. The stipulations for the match were that if Storm Dior lost, they could no longer challenge for the belts against The Tonys, and if The Tonys did absolutely ANYTHING to warrant a disqualification, they’d be banned from TSW for one year and lose the belts in the process. This was Storm Dior’s match to win as they had something to prove and a level playing field to get the job done.

I mentioned before that previous matches between these four competitors felt like the fast-paced action from something like the heyday of the TNA X-Division, and this was no exception. Both teams are well-oiled tag team machines, with impressive tag moves and a ring awareness needed to truly succeed in this field. Try as they might to keep their belts in their possession, The Tonys finally succumbed to the might of Storm Dior, walking out of Gladstone with their tails between their legs. The new champions stood tall in that rec center ushering in a new era of tag team wrestling in TSW. Now the question is, who’s next? Are Fajita Taker and Math Magician gunning for a rematch, or will we see new blood in December? I’m excited either way, and can’t wait to see what happens!

Check out more pictures I took in music video form:

Conclusion:

Overall, this was a solid card with some BIG title matches that the fans really got hyped for. Going against a Kansas City Chiefs game in the afternoon was a tough order, but the event drew a pretty decent crowd, and everyone seemed to go home happy. I honestly love the idea of going to shows early on Sunday afternoon, and hope to see more like this in the area. I always take my son to matches, and having him home before bedtime is a huge plus, as well as avoiding highway traffic at nighttime! I mentioned in my preview that this was the first professional wrestling tour I had ever planned to attend, and honestly it was a wonderful experience. Tri States Wrestling will be back with a two-day tour in December, and as long as I’m not too busy or the weather ends up terrible, I plan to do both shows yet again!