This year, I’m trying something different on my blog – I’m going through my local professional Wrestling coverage and doing a countdown of the ten (well 11 actually) Kansas City area professional wrestling feuds that I felt deserved some recognition. Since late last year, I have attended nearly THIRTY wrestling shows with my son, and have been blessed to have been there for some of the best professional wrestling I’ve seen in my entire life. As a passionate fan of professional wrestling, delving into the vastly underrated well of local talent and feuds has been a great experience.

The vibrant energy, raw passion, fan interaction, and extraordinary skill displayed by these local professionals have reignited my love for the sport in ways I never anticipated. It’s easy to be jaded with this sport and turn into one of the stereotypical knuckle-dragging fans that fight online and seemingly hate what they supposedly love. With each unforgettable showdown and captivating rivalry, I find myself eager to share the thrill and excitement of these events with others. I am as far away from the above stereotype as I have ever been, and I’m not sure I can go back. It is my desire to shine a spotlight on the extraordinary talent and compelling narratives that define the Kansas City professional wrestling scene, celebrating the dedication and artistry of these unsung heroes.

Join me for these next eleven days as we countdown to what I felt was the best feud of 2023, and make sure to drop me some comments on either social media or this very post about anything I may have missed, because….well this sums it up better than I can explain here:

Please don’t be offended if I have seemingly ignored something from a show I have never been to. I sadly don’t get to attend KCXW much at all, for example, so I can’t speak on any shows from them, but that’s something I hope to change. The same goes for a lot of companies in Central Kansas that occasionally come over here (HCW comes to mind). As companies get more of a digital footprint, perhaps this will change as I can keep up with their product online at my leisure. I mostly follow three companies because I don’t really have time to go to every show that comes through; occasionally, I’ll dabble in something like World League Wrestling, but it’s very rare. With that in mind, hopefully everyone enjoys this, and maybe I can see other lists like this from other fans!

Without further ado, who did I feel was so good I couldn’t possibly remove them from the list?

Note: Some of this may be lifted from a previous review, I give myself permission to plagiarize myself. All photos are mine.

Honorable Mention – The Tonys VS Storm Dior (TSW)

I nearly didn’t put this on here because this entire feud was only three matches over three days, but honestly these four men told a better story in that short amount of time than a lot of companies can do throughout an entire year. Tri States Wrestling, out of North-Western Missouri, is one of the few US-based wrestling companies to do tours that run consecutive days – a staple of wrestling in places like Japan and Europe. For their Second Annual TSW Midwest Tour, a huge emphasis was placed on the TSW Tag Team Championships and the rise of an upstart tag team taking Missouri by storm (see what I did there?) – Storm Dior aka Tobias Storm and Blaire Dior. Before we get to that, however, let’s talk about their opponents.

The Tonys is comprised of Tonē Bennett and Tony Leyenda, two men that I was not too familiar with prior to the Second Annual TSW Midwest Tour in 2023. Both men 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 after their big win in Palmyra, Missouri. 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.

After the Tonys won the belts, they had a match against Storm Dior in Chillicothe, Missouri and nearly lost, having to resort to some pretty underhanded tactics to keep the straps. In their rematch in St. Joseph, Missouri it was much the same, The Tonys held onto the belts, but only because they were willing to do almost ANYTHING to get that extra paycheck. By the time their third encounter came around for Gladstone, MO something had to be done. No matter what, it was going to be THE final match between the two teams. TSW management made the right call by locking everything down with some ground rules, likely to subdue any underhanded 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. 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 almost proved far too much for Storm Dior, but slowly but surely the scales tipped, and they were on the back foot. While The Tonys did not get themselves banned, they started to cheat a bit, and walked the line very closely to their own demise. Suddenly, Storm Dior overcame all the odds stacked against them and came out of the match victorious. The new champions stood tall in that rec center ushering in a new era of tag team wrestling in TSW. Ever since, you will not find a couple of guys more beloved in all of TSW (well okay Bert Candy, but EVERYONE loves Bert Candy!) and may their reigns be long!

That’s it for my first installment of this series, check back again soon (maybe tomorrow?) to see who’s next! To keep up with this series, click HERE.

For more pro wrestling content, Click HERE.

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!

The post Arcadia Pod’s Top Ten Kansas City Area Professional Wrestling Feuds of 2023 – Honorable Mention appeared first on Arcadia Pod.